Promoting Healthcare for the Elderly: A Matter of Conception

Although community health nurses have to face the increasing needs in curative and palliative care, they still engage in health promotion activities for the elderly, mainly cognitive and behavioural ones. The Quebec community health nurses who choose the McGill model of nursing, are able to integrate health promotion interventions in their daily practice with old aged people. In fact, this model helps these nurses consider the elderly, health, sickness and nursing care in a way that makes them promote self-esteem, empowerment, development and coping through most of their interventions. Moreover, the elderly population would benefit from an increased implication of nurses in ecological, environmental and community health promotion projects.