Book Review
Promoting health: the primary health care approach
Andrea Wass
ISBN: 978-0729534253; 1994; 270 pages; Harcourt Brace & Co.;
Morgan Smith
Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of South Australia, City East Campus, Adelaide SA
This is a basic introductory text on promoting health for students of nursing and the other health professions. Using a primary health care framework the issues of health promotion, values, needs assessment, evaluation, community development and health education are discussed. Working with communities, groups and the mass media are also covered. This text features contributions from a range of health promotion specialists including several nurses. It provides an international perspective on primary health care while providing a number of significant Australian examples of the concepts in practise. Topics are covered broadly and appropriately for an introductory text.
Comprehensive reading lists follow many of the chapters and the reader is encouraged to read more widely for greater depth of information. While some issues such as those on assessment and evaluation provide only general information on the concepts, other issues such as working with groups, the mass media and health education provide basic practical information and helpful hints. This is very useful for the beginning student. With several topics there is a clear attempt to provide the reader with an overview of the various arguments inherent in discussing the promotion of health.
This is demonstrated most clearly in the chapter on using the mass media. While there is a clear attempt to define concepts this is sometimes inadequate or disjointed, particularly when the concept is explored partially at different points in the book. This is most evident in the exploration of the concept of health promotion. The index is apropriate. This text achieves its goal of being a basic introductory text but goes no further.
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