Introduction:
For the purpose of this assignment and based on the webquest, I have chosen Essay 2, evaluating a health promotion website. The current health promotion topic I have selected is smoking cessation. The National Health Service (NHS) has set up a “Go Smokefree” Services and a NHS smoking helpline plus a website offering free advice on stopping smoking and details of your local NHS Stop Smoking Services (NICE 2006).
The rationale for this choice is that having completed a placement on a respiratory ward caring for patients with many smoking related diseases, it is important for me as an adult branch nurse to discuss health promotion issues, and to be up to date with current information in order to help educate people and allow them to make informed choices regarding their health, especially the health benefits of stopping smoking. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC 2008) states that it is important for nurses to ensure that any advice or information given to patients is evidence based.
Smoking is a long established health hazard and it is the largest avoidable cause of premature deaths in the UK (DOH 2007). It affects almost all branches of nursing because of the wide range of diseases and conditions which it causes. All types of health problems are linked to breathing in second hand smoke, so smokers risk the health of others as well as their own. Almost everyone knows that smoking is bad for their health but despite graphic images of blackened lungs and cancerous growths in doctors waiting rooms and on cigarette packets people start smoking or continue to smoke.
In order to evaluate the information from my chosen website I will be using a framework (Kapoun 1998). The reason for using this framework is because his approach supports the assignment guidelines, which include; an overview of the website; the author’s credibility; content accuracy; content objectivity or bias; and the currency of the content.
Accuracy:
Having decided on the subject, smoking cessation I searched the World Wide Web, using the Google search engine using the criteria. I typed in current health promotions smoking, UK search only. This displayed 240,000 results, the number one return was www.nhs.uk/smokefree and I decided to use this one. The page is produced by the NHS and has no individual author. The website contains facilities for e-mail should you encounter any difficulties with using the website, and a direct contact telephone number for help and advice.