Date of Award
7-1-1988
Document Type
Dissertation - NSU Access Only
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Abstract
The AHE Matrix (Adult Health Education Matrix) is a conceptual model for the practice of client health education. It depicts the integration of adult education principles and practices into the concept of patient education. It reintegrated the concept of patient education into the broader, more inclusive concept of health education utilizing the Preventative Intervention Theory, which includes the concepts of health promotion, restoration, and the rehabilitation as an organizing framework. The model is depicted diagrammatically and assumptions, definitions, and rationales were also formulated to provide an explanation of the relationship among the three components: Health, Client Health Education and Adult Education. Besides the creative processes of the researcher, both the processes of concept analysis and synthesis were the basis for the model formation. As a model design, the matrix was the format chosen for it best depicts the integration of the three concepts simultaneously. This reinforces that it is an interactionist model, since within the role of the nurse as a health educator, these concepts are integrated and interact to form the basis of every formal or informal educational encounters with the client. It is this interaction of the nurse and the client regarding and aspect of the health-illness continum that creates the multidimensional matrix. The model is recommended for use in the Curriculum at Boston College for it is compatible with both nursing theoretical models and nursing practice methodology called the nursing processes as well as the curricular framework at the School of Nursing.