Reviewing health promotion in nursing education

SummaryThe [World Health Organisation, 2000. Nurse and Midwives for Health: A WHO European Strategy for Nursing and Midwifery Education. WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen] European Strategy for Nursing and Midwifery Education calls for the explicit inclusion and application of health promotion in all nursing curricula. Prior to this strategy, and subsequently, studies have explored the nature and extent of health promotion in nursing education. This article extensively reviews this body of literature. Overall, the literature, both included in this review and its supporting discussion, presents a picture suggesting that the call for effective inclusion of health promotion has in many cases gone unheeded. The literature also identifies that the educational delivery of broader elements of health promotion is muted in comparison to the ‘traditional’ constructs of health education. Considerations for wider reform, born out of the literature, are presented.