Introduction
Better nutrition and physical exercise are very significant for one’s health. An environmental scanning in the nursing discipline was carried out to establish whether or not parents and kids know the importance of good health and exercise. Some professional and personal choices may lead to poor nutrition. For instance, eating lot of calories can have negative effects on the health of the concerned individuals. As such, both parents and children need to identify those physical activities and food choices that can help them live a life with no or few diseases and other physical limitations.
Topics Covered
The first topic covered during the Health Fair was the significance of Good nutrition during the early life of children. It was crucial to pass this knowledge about good nutrition of kids to parents since a good start leads to good health in adulthood and old age. Hyrkas and Harvey (2010) asserted that the benefits of good nutrition are less severe diseases of shorter duration. Another topic that was covered was the role of physical exercise for children. Exercise improves the learning potential and physical fitness in kids. As such, children who get sufficient diet perform better in factual knowledge tests than those with inadequate diets. Additionally, exercise improves the strength and general health of children. Exposure to the sun is an example of an activity that can be incorporated during exercise as it assists in the development of strong bones.
Personal Objective
My personal objective during the Health Fair was to determine how both parents and children perceive the concept of nutrition and exercise. I wanted to find out weather parents know the importance of good nutrition and exercise to their kids. If they do not have such knowledge, there is a need to provide methods of creating awareness to them. However, if the parents know the importance of good nutrition and exercise to their children, one can always learn from them (Whitacre, 2009).
Objective Attainment
With regard to the impact of the Health Fair, I attained my objective for the day. It was my privilege to realize that most parents knew the benefits of good nutrition and exercise to their kids between the age of three and six years (Samour & King, 2012). For instance, almost all parents know that exercise is very important in strengthening the muscles and bones of growing kids. Additionally, parents believe that healthy nutrition and exercise make a great contribution to economic growth and advancement. The reason of such growth is a decrease in the huge amounts of funds used on medication in a healthy family. Healthy kids are then likely to be healthy adults who put their energy in the attainment of organizational goals hence productivity.
Neumark-Sztainer (2005) pointed out that such productivity boosts the economical growth of a country. Another important aspect that I learned was that healthy kids are safe from growth and development impairs, and that they have minimal chances of death. Many parents know the importance of spending time together and strengthening their family bond and thus, include exercise in their daily schedules. During such moments, they get outdoors for games and spend time away from televisions and other videos. Through such activities, they become the role models for their kids by doing exercise when they get time or by trying to create time for exercising.
What Surprised Me
Even though quite a large number of parents embraced effective nutrition and physical exercise, some parents did not have any knowledge regarding the importance of both nutrition and exercise to kids. Due to lack of such knowledge among some parents, there is a need to provide more information on the significance of better nutrition and physical exercise to both parents and children. This awareness ensures that parents provide the right diet for their children, as well as offer them platforms for physical exercise (Kang, 2012). Additionally, other constraints such as the availability and accessibility of health options may deter parents from providing the recommended nutrition for their families.
What I Learned
During the entire study, I learned that lack of good nutrition weakens a society because the well-being and learning potential of children is constrained. As such, it affects attention in class, school enrollment time for kids, school aptitudes, and concentration. Such kids tend to get the lowest mark in IQ and factual knowledge questions (Deng, 2005). The parents were thus very happy since they realized that their children could perform well in school if they had healthy eating habits. It is through proper nutrition and a lot of exercises that children can benefit from instructional materials.
Conclusion
As the discussion above demonstrates, both exercise and good nutrition to children are crucial for their growth and development. Parents should make optimum use of any available resources to ensure fitness of their kids. In addition, they can formulate and implement effective strategies aimed at helping them to boost the health of their children. Parents ought to encourage their children to exercise daily because continuous exercise increases heart efficiency and reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
References
Deng, H. (2005). Current topics in osteoporosis. Hackensack, N.J.: World Scientific.
Hyrkas, K., & Harvey, K. (2010). Leading innovation and change. Journal of Nursing Management, 18(1), 1–3.
Kang, J. (2012). Nutrition and metabolism in sports, exercise, and health. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Neumark-Sztainer, D. (2005). I’m, like, so Fat! New York: Guilford Press.
Samour, P., & King, K. (2012). Pediatric nutrition. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Whitacre, P. (2009). Community perspectives on obesity prevention in children. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.