Summary
Health promotion has always been important for the needs of the community (Nnakwe, 2009). As Hitchcock, Schubert and Thomas stress, “The concepts of heath promotion, health protection, and disease/injury prevention are crucial ones in relation to understanding the mission of public health and, thus, community health nursing” (Hitchcock, Schubert & Thomas, 2003, 14). In the given paper, my experience at Woolworth is being discussed. By observing the ways in which a healthy lifestyle was promoted to the local community, I managed to learn valuable lessons about the way a community works, the means to promote health to the community, and the variety of marketing tools.
My Observations
As a means to become more informed on the means to enhance a healthier lifestyle in a community, the Woolworth experience is definitely worth its weight in gold. Learning about both the community health problems and the way in which an organization can help solve these problems, the given project was a real revelation. In addition, it was rather peculiar to see observe the way in which people make choices based on the means with the help of which they are being marketed to (Fenske, 2008).
What I Did
To learn the significance of health promotion for Woolworth among its clientele, it was required to evaluate the quality of the food offered in the shop as well. With such barometers of food quality as the ratio of fast food and liquor to the number of healthier food products, an objective evaluation of the health promotion importance is possible.
Considering the range of products that the Woolworth shop offers, one must admit that not all of the brands offered by the shop owner can be considered a perfect choice for a healthy diet. As it has been mentioned above, the Woolworth shop offers not only liquor, but also a range of fast food, which brings the rates of healthy dieting among the local population down and, in its turn, increases the rates of such disorders as obesity and heart issues. Therefore, to learn the importance of promoting healthy eating habits to a community, considering the range of goods sold in the Woolworth store was enough.
It would be wrong, however, to claim that the experience at the Woolworth has contributed to shaping a solely negative opinion concerning the effects of its business on the neighborhood. Considering some of the marketing techniques that the Woolworth uses, such as attracting more customers owing to clever advertisement strategy, as well as the fact that the Woolworth chain offers not only food but also a variety of other products, some of which are related to as the “beauty and Health” merchandise. Therefore, the given experience has contributed to understanding not only the necessity to promote health in the community but also how addressing health affects marketing strategies and buyers’ behavior (Kolter & Armstrong, 2010).
How I Felt about What I Did
The significance of health promotion becomes especially clear and at the same time uncomfortably controversial after specifying that, among the entire range of food provided by the Woolworth at Bondi, liquor makes a huge chunk of the total return. That being said, the health promotion issue must be addressed very carefully, which the owners of the Woolworth understand well enough. As a result, to learn about the positive effect that the goods sold at Woolworth have on the target population, it was required to consider the variety of products that the given company has to offer to its clientele.
What I Learned
In the course of my experience at Woolsworth, I learned much about the means to promote a healthier lifestyle to a community by developing a specific policy and promoting environmentally friendly goods, as well as the goods that make a healthier alternative to the fast-food the clients. In addition, the experience at Woolsworth has shown me how a community works and how important it is to make sure that each member of the community is aware of the threats to his/her health and the means to avoid these threats by consuming healthy products and following the principles of sustainability and green eating.
My Comments on the Profession
There are many ways in which such shops as Woolsworth can help a community develop. In the light of the fact that health promotion in the community is closely related to the advertising activities within the specified community, as well as the subject of its focus, it can be considered that the goods provided by the owner of a community shop should be aimed at enhancing the proper eating habits among the members of the specified community. That being said, it will be reasonable for such shops as the Woolworth to focus on the production of the food that can be considered the number one choice for healthy dieting. To evaluate the effect of health promotion on the community, gathering statistical data will be required. The quantitative research specified above can be conducted with the help of such tools as questionnaires and opinion polls. For more exact information, however, it will be necessary to refer to official statistical data concerning the rates of diseases and disorders among the target audience, as well as the rates of consumption of fast food or any other product that triggers health or environmental issues.
Speaking of which, it will be also desirable to focus on the production of environmentally friendly goods; thus, the long-term issues concerning the community health, such as the development of asthma due to the dense traffic system and air pollution (Steingraber, 2011), will also be addressed. When naming the exact products that will supposedly help raising the community awareness of the current health concerns and the means to prevent the threat to people’s health from becoming a reality, such products as natural food must be considered firsthand. With a large amount of fast food in the modern market, there is no wonder that heart disorders, obesity, and kidneys dysfunction still remain major issues. As researchers say, such a method as green health can be adopted by an organization that would like to enhance a healthier lifestyle among its members. According to Ogunseitan, “As more people try to live sustainably, more organizations and communities try to operate sustainably” (Ogunseitan, 2011, 141). With that in mind, it will be a good idea to offer people the goods that will help them follow the principles of a “green life” (Uliano, 2009), starting from eating green (Owen, 2009) to making the neighborhood look greener (Low, 2005), which will demand selling gardening tools.
Reference List
Fenske, G. (2008). The skyscraper and the city: The Woolworth building and the making of modern New York. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Hitchcock, J. E., Schubert, P. E., & Thomas, S. A. (2003). Community health nursing: Caring in action. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Kolter, P. J., & Armstrong, G. M. (2010). Principles of marketing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson education.
Low, N. P. (2005). The green city: Sustainable homes, sustainable suburbs. Sydney, AU: UNSW Press Book.
Nnakwe, N. E. (2009). Community Nutrition: Planning health promotion and disease prevention. Sudbury, MA: 2009.
Ogunseitan, O. (2011). Green health: An A-to-Z guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Owen, R. (2009). Growing and eating green: Careers in farming, producing and eating green. New York, NY: Crabtree Publishing Company.
Steingraber, S. (2011). Raising Elijah: Protecting our children in the age of environmental crisis. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.
Uliano, S. (2009). The gorgeously green diet: How to live and learn green. New York, NY: Penguin Group, Inc.