Health promotion in acute care settings.

Promoting health in a hospital setting is a realistic goal for the acute-care nurse. Nursing strategies such as lifestyle assessment, health teaching, and effective communication can be used to make decisions about health practices. Nurses should be alert to lifestyle-induced diseases and risk factors that precede these diseases. Hospitals have an important role in providing individuals with health information. Nurses can play integral parts in helping the hospitalized patients achieve better health by incorporating health promotion strategies in everyday clinical practice.