The quality management and health promotion practice nexus

摘要

This paper has sought to highlight the similarities and differences that exist between health promotion and quality management. It has identified some fundamental considerations that need to be reflected on before imposing a quality management paradigm upon health promotion practice. The most important of these is that as the quality management paradigm does not contain the constructs of social justice or equity and as these are central to health promotion practice they need to be embedded into any quality management approach to health promotion. One of the benefits of integrating quality management into health promotion practice is that it requires health promotion practitioners and planners to focus upon the extent to which these underlying health promotion concepts, principles and practices have been integrated into programmes. It forces the practitioner to question the extent to which organisations are reflecting those principles that should be driving health promotion. Quality management offers us the opportunity to operationalise these concepts, principles and practices into every day activity; to take what is implicit in the major trends identified in health promotion and make them an explicit part of practice.