| Course | NUR-3280 Health Assessment and Health Promotion |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 5 |
| Paper type | Health promotion theory and screening paper |
| Length | About 1,101 words, 7 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Thomas Edison State University |
| Program | Accelerated B.S.N. Program |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NUR 3280 Module 5
Why a Healthy-Feeling Waterman Skips Screening: Pender's Health Promotion Model and Screening Across the Lifespan
Student Name
Accelerated B.S.N. Program, Thomas Edison State University
NUR-3280: Health Assessment and Health Promotion
Mentor Name
Month Day, Year
Why a Healthy-Feeling Waterman Skips Screening: Pender's Health Promotion Model and Screening Across the Lifespan
The client followed through this course, a forty-nine-year-old oyster harvester, describes their health as pretty good, works physically every day, and has not seen a primary care provider in four years. Earlier modules found a twenty-two pack-year smoking history, a positive alcohol screen, repeated elevated blood pressures, reduced hearing and sun-damage lesions. This paper turns from assessment to health promotion. It explains Nola Pender's Health Promotion Model and uses it to understand why a person who feels well does not seek screening, compares how preventive screening priorities change across the lifespan, and sets out which current recommendations apply to this client now and over the next year.
Pender's Health Promotion Model
Pender et al. (2015) describe health promotion as behavior motivated by the desire to increase well-being and realize health potential, rather than by the avoidance of illness. Their model groups the influences on a health-promoting behavior into three sets. The first set is what the person brings: how they have acted on similar behaviors before, and their biological, psychological and social makeup. The second, which the model treats as the most open to nursing influence, covers what the person thinks and feels about the specific behavior: how worthwhile it seems, what obstacles loom, the person's confidence, how the activity feels, and what other people and circumstances push them toward or away from. The third is the behavioral outcome, which depends on commitment to a plan of action and is pulled off course by competing demands and preferences.
The model is useful here precisely because the client is not ill. Many screening conversations are framed around fear of disease, which carries little weight for someone who feels strong and has never been hospitalized. Pender's emphasis on benefits, barriers and confidence offers a different way in.
Applying the Model to the Client
The client's prior related behavior is consistent: no routine care in four years and two unsuccessful attempts to quit smoking. Personal factors include a demanding seasonal work schedule from March to December, a culture of self-reliance among watermen and a family history of heart disease and diabetes. Perceived benefits are low; when asked, the client said screening is for people who are sick. Perceived barriers are high and concrete: lost work days during the season, the cost of copays, and a dislike of medical offices. Perceived self-efficacy is mixed, high for physical work and low for quitting cigarettes after two failures.
Interpersonal influences are the most promising lever. The client mentioned that a crewmate's colon cancer was found early on a screening test and that the crewmate returned to the boat after treatment. The client's partner has also asked them to get checked. Situational influences include the long off-season from January through February, when the boats do not dredge and appointments would not cost work time. In Pender's terms, the plan should raise perceived benefits through peer examples rather than statistics, lower barriers by scheduling in the off-season and using screening methods that do not require missed work, and build self-efficacy by starting with a step the client is confident about.
The model also explains why previous advice has not worked. Earlier clinicians, according to the client, told them to quit smoking and to get checked, and both messages relied on fear of disease. Pender's model predicts that such messages will have little effect on a person whose prior experience is of good health and whose barriers are practical, because they do nothing to change the perceived balance of benefits and barriers or to build confidence. A different message, delivered by a different messenger at a different time of year, has a better chance.
Screening Priorities Across the Lifespan
Preventive priorities shift with age. In childhood, screening centers on growth, development, vision, hearing and lead exposure, alongside immunizations. Adolescents are screened for depression, substance use and, when sexually active, sexually transmitted infections. In early and middle adulthood, the focus moves to cardiovascular risk, including blood pressure, lipids and diabetes, and to cancers whose screening begins in midlife. For older adults, the emphasis turns to fall risk, cognition and osteoporosis, and to decisions about stopping some cancer screening when the expected benefit no longer outweighs the burden.
The client sits at a transition point. At forty-nine, several recommendations of the US Preventive Services Task Force apply now, and one more will apply in a year. The table lists those most relevant to the client's history.
| Screening | Recommendation | Status for this client |
|---|---|---|
| Colorectal cancer | Adults 45 to 75 (US Preventive Services Task Force, 2021b) | Due now; no prior screening |
| Lung cancer by low-dose CT | Yearly low-dose CT, ages 50 through 80, at 20-plus pack-years, still smoking or quit under 15 years ago (US Preventive Services Task Force, 2021a) | Eligible at age 50 next year |
| Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes | Ages 35 to 70 with overweight or obesity (US Preventive Services Task Force, 2021c) | Due now; body mass index 29 |
| Blood pressure | All adults, with confirmation outside the clinic | Elevated on three readings; confirm |
| Tobacco use | Ask, advise and offer treatment to all adults who smoke | Current smoker; offer treatment |
Matching Screening to the Client
Two of the recommendations fit the barriers identified by the model especially well. Colorectal cancer screening can be done with an annual stool-based test at home, which requires no missed work and no procedure, and that option is listed among the recommended strategies alongside colonoscopy (US Preventive Services Task Force, 2021b). For a client who dislikes medical offices and cannot lose a day in the season, offering the home test first is more likely to produce screening than insisting on colonoscopy. Diabetes and blood pressure screening can be combined in a single off-season visit, which addresses the family history the client takes seriously.
Lung cancer screening becomes relevant next year. Introducing it now, while discussing smoking, lets the client hear about it before it becomes due and frames quitting as something that also changes their screening picture. That conversation belongs to the health promotion plan in the final module.
Conclusion
Pender's model explains the client's pattern better than a lack of knowledge would: low perceived benefit, concrete barriers, mixed confidence and strong interpersonal influences. Screening recommendations across the lifespan show that the client has reached the age when several important screenings apply. Matching the method and timing of screening to the barriers the model identifies, a home stool test, an off-season visit and a peer example rather than a statistic, is more likely to move this client from feeling healthy to staying healthy.
References
Pender, N. J., Murdaugh, C. L., & Parsons, M. A. (2015). Health promotion in nursing practice (7th ed.). Pearson.
US Preventive Services Task Force. (2021a). Screening for lung cancer: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. JAMA, 325(10), 962-970. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.1117
US Preventive Services Task Force. (2021b). Screening for colorectal cancer: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. JAMA, 325(19), 1965-1977. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.6238
US Preventive Services Task Force. (2021c). Screening for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. JAMA, 326(8), 736-743. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.12531
What the NUR 3280 Module 5 instructions ask for
The fifth module of NUR-3280 usually turns from assessment to health promotion. Expect to explain a health promotion theory, such as Pender's model or the Health Belief Model, apply it to a client, describe screening recommendations across the lifespan, and identify which screenings apply to your client now. Some sections ask for a comparison of age groups, and others for a focus on one stage of life. TESU's course site has the exact prompt, so confirm which theory is required, whether you must use US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations or another source, and whether the next module's promotion plan should build on this paper.
How the NUR 3280 Module 5 example is put together
The paper opens by recalling the client's assessment findings and stating its three tasks. The theory section explains the three sets of influences in Pender's model and why the model suits a client who is not ill. The application section works through prior behavior, personal factors, benefits, barriers, self-efficacy and interpersonal and situational influences using specific facts, then names the best levers. The lifespan section summarizes screening priorities from childhood to older age and introduces a table of five recommendations matched to the client. A matching section explains why a home stool test and an off-season visit fit the barriers. The conclusion restates the argument and prepares for the final plan.
NUR 3280 Module 5 rubric: what earns full marks
The rubric for this paper usually rewards a correct account of the theory, application of the theory's constructs to the client, accurate and current screening recommendations, appropriate matching of screening to the client, and writing. Application carries the most weight: each construct should be tied to specific client facts. Screening recommendations should come from current primary sources, with ages and criteria stated correctly, since outdated thresholds such as starting colorectal screening at fifty cost points. The lifespan comparison earns credit when it shows how priorities change and why. Papers that use the theory to choose how screening is offered, not only which screening, tend to score highest. Mentors also check that each recommendation is attributed to its own statement.
NUR 3280 Module 5 help: mistakes that cost marks
Students often summarize a health promotion theory for a page and then apply it in a sentence. Reverse the balance. Another frequent problem is outdated screening ages; check the current recommendation for each test before writing. Students also list every possible screening for every age group, which leaves no room for the client. Keep the lifespan section brief and the client section detailed. Avoid framing a healthy client's choices as ignorance; the model is useful because it explains reasonable barriers. Finally, connect the screening plan to the barriers you identified. If you would like a promotion and screening paper built around your own client, the desk can draft it from your assessment notes.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Thomas Edison State University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
More NUR 3280 and Accelerated B.S.N. Program sample papers
- NUR 3280 Module 1: Assessment Technique Paper
- NUR 3280 Module 2: Health History and Interview
- NUR 3280 Module 3: Skin Assessment Write-Up
- NUR 3280 Module 4: Multi-System Assessment
- NUR 3280 Module 6: Health Promotion Plan
- NUR 4500 Module 3: Career Pathways Comparison
- NUR 4420 Module 4: Community Care Settings Paper
NUR 3280 Module 5 questions, answered
Where can I find a free NUR 3280 Module 5 sample paper?
The full paper is above, with its screening table, references and margin notes. It applies Pender's model and current screening recommendations to a forty-nine-year-old waterman; use the same approach with your own client.
What are the main constructs of Pender's Health Promotion Model?
Individual characteristics and experiences, including prior related behavior and personal factors; behavior-specific cognitions and affect, including perceived benefits, barriers, self-efficacy, activity-related feelings and interpersonal and situational influences; and the behavioral outcome, shaped by commitment to a plan and competing demands.
When does colorectal cancer screening start now?
The federal task force lowered the starting age to 45 in 2021 and continues screening through 75. Several methods are acceptable, including annual stool-based tests and colonoscopy, so the method can be matched to the client's preferences and barriers.
Who is eligible for lung cancer screening?
The 2021 statement covers adults from their fiftieth to their eightieth birthday whose smoking adds up to a pack a day for twenty years or its equivalent, whether they still light up or gave it up within the last fifteen years; screening is a yearly low-dose scan. Screening uses annual low-dose CT and should include a discussion of benefits and harms.
Do I need to cover every age group in NUR-3280 Module 5?
Usually only briefly. A short comparison showing how priorities change from childhood to older adulthood meets most directions; spend most of the paper on the client's stage of life and specific recommendations.