Aim: This study aimed to analyze the nurse's evaluation of the health education practice to children and parents.
Methods: This is a descriptive and transversal research with a quantitative approach. The selection took place by non-probabilistic convenience sampling, and was developed with nurses on health units for pediatric hospitalization and primary health care in northern Portugal (Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro Hospital Center, EPE, Northern Regional Health Administration, Northern Local Health Unit, EPE.). Data were collected using a questionnaire with a sample of 311 nurses in the second semester of 2018.
Results: 77.5% (n = 241) of nurses perform health education daily; 65% (n = 202) prepare according to the identified needs; the "Identification of children/young and parents' health priorities" was considered to be the most facilitating element (n = 279; 89.7%); the most difficult element was the "Fear of confidentiality breach by the children/young and parents" (74.6%; n = 232); and 65.9% (n = 205) of nurses considered this practice to have equal importance compared to other nursing interventions. It was also found that academic/professional qualifications and the place of professional practice influence the importance that nurses attribute to HE practice.
Conclusions: We can state that there is an appreciation of the binomial child and parents for a better identification of needs, and of the importance attributed to the current legal guidelines (letting themes leading to good health practices be addressed by nurses), which translates into a practice capable of influencing the determinants of health, which promotes health-enhancing behaviors and thus both leads to health gains and reinforces the nurse's position as health-promoting agents.
Keywords: health promotion; nursing care; pediatrics.