The KwaZulu-Natal health promotion model.

PURPOSE: To describe a health promotion model aimed at assisting primary health care nurses to incorporate health promotion into their practice. ORGANIZING STRUCTURE: The model is based on empowering people through a systematic, planned, needs-driven curriculum with comprehensive content, using interactive teaching in small groups, and linking the groups with external resources. The process involves identifying and engaging partners, planning the project, implementing it, and then disengaging.

METHODS: The implementation of this model in a province of South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, in a collaborative project involving two universities and the state health services, changed the practice of the primary health care nurses involved. They worked with women's groups over 3 years and changed both their own perspectives and the lives of the women.

CONCLUSIONS: Unless nurses have an implementation model available to them, they frequently focus only on illness needs of people and do not participate in health promotion.