Support worker brings health education to rural populations
Posted 01 June 2016
Engaging people according to their needs is key to the success of RCNi award winner Steven Evans-Jones
A healthcare support worker is taking innovative approaches in his hospital’s outpatient department and carrying health promotion messages to the community.
A survey by Dolgellau Hospital outpatient department in Gwynedd found patients reported barriers to health education, such as geographic location, lack of time, lack of services, expense, lack of confidence and poor mobility.
Picture credit: Neil O’Connor
Steven Evans-Jones, who works for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in North Wales, tackles these barriers by ensuring people can access information to improve their lifestyle and health, whether on hospital visits or in the community.
His efforts won him the RCN Healthcare Assistant award at the RCNi Nurse Awards 2016.
RCN professional lead for healthcare assistants and assistant practitioners Tanis Hand was the category’s specialist judge. She says: ‘Steven is incredibly modest about his ability to engage with people of all ages and backgrounds in his mission to improve the health of the rural community.
‘He has truly taken health promotion to the people, and his engagement will have an impact not only for many people right now, but going well into the future. He tackles “difficult” subjects such as testicular awareness with innovative ideas and is harnessing students’ enthusiasm to learn and share their knowledge – a legacy for the future.’
Staff nurse Anne Thomas, who runs the Dolgellau outpatients department, says Mr Evans-Jones has embraced a national drive to make outpatient departments in rural Wales health promotion hubs.
‘Changing the focus of outpatient departments requires the positive can-do attitude that characterises Steven,’ says Ms Thomas. ‘He has understood the principles of behaviour change and how to apply them in an effective way, and regularly audits his innovations.
New ideas
‘Steven is so enthusiastic when he talks – you cannot enthuse others without that. He also has a flair for developing new ideas.’
One of these is the Red Box initiative (see
Red Box health education tool
Red box file with full range of British Heart Foundation leaflets on lifestyle change.
Portable, visible, comprehensive tool for health education.
Helps to initiate conversations about health in waiting areas.
Patients are taken to a private area if they want to discuss their health further.
To improve links with young people, Mr Evans-Jones has been instrumental in developing a project where healthcare students at a local college give a health education presentation to a targeted group. He works with the students every week, planning, researching and collating information, helping them to give the presentation and auditing the project with photographic and written evidence of effectiveness.
Currently, he is planning a sun awareness project in which students will give a demonstration of sun protection to their peers, particularly construction and farming students at risk of sunburn.
Mr Evans-Jones says: ‘Tailoring our health education approach to the individual’s needs, whether it is a young man, a carer, an inpatient or a patient with cancer, has been key to our success.
‘People have got to try to take some sort of responsibility for their health, but they need our support and guidance. It’s up to all of us who work in the industry to help people do that.
‘What we’re trying to say is: “you’re rural, but you’re equal”. If someone has to travel for an 90 minutes to go to a stop smoking session, they might not do it. However, if someone asks us to come and do a presentation at 8pm, then we go.’
It is this engagement with people that prompted the Orchid charity to ask him to be their ambassador in North Wales. The charity strives to save men’s lives by preventing testicular, prostate and penile cancers through research and awareness.
‘Male cancer awareness is under-represented in rural areas,’ Mr Evans-Jones says. He gives talks and group sessions in the community, tailored to appeal to a young audience and encouraging them to use smartphones to answer sensitive questionnaires.
‘Men do have a tendency to suffer in silence,’ he adds. ‘Often the groups of lads I have talked to say no one has ever spoken to them about something like testicular cancer before.’
Despite a full workload, he continues to find ways to take health promotion to the hardest to reach groups. ‘This includes people who do not leave their homes,’ he says. ‘If someone is obese or a smoker they may have health education needs not being addressed. We plan to work with community nurses who will take materials to their homes.’
‘I have plans to extend the scope of health education on prostate and testicular cancer. As well as colleges, I will do testicular awareness sessions in schools and groups for young people. I will continue to give talks in the evenings to raise awareness of prostate cancer.
‘My aim is that we reach every part of our community to encourage health and wellbeing according to individual needs’.