Platform 2: promoting health and preventing ill health
Written and checked against the NMC’s published sources by The NMCMATE editorial team.Last checked .
10 marks of the 100 in Part B, which runs for 150 minutes.
Platform 2 asks what a nurse does with the opportunity in front of them. Somebody mentions they smoke, or their drinking, or that they have not been to a screening appointment, and the question is what a nurse says next.
What this section asks about
Health promotion and the principles of behaviour change
Brief advice and brief intervention, and when a referral is the answer
UK screening and immunisation programmes
The wider determinants of health and how inequalities arise
Communicable disease, notifiable disease and outbreak control
Where the marks go
10 marks of the 100 in Part B, which runs for 150 minutes. The NMC splits this section across the levels of Bloom's taxonomy:
Remember and understand: 4
Apply and analyse: 3
Evaluate and create: 3
Where candidates lose marks
Reaching for information giving. Telling somebody the risks rarely changes behaviour on its own.
Waiting to be asked. The point of an opportunistic intervention is that the nurse raises it.
Confusing what is notifiable with what is serious. The list is set in law and not everything alarming is on it.
Sample questions
From our bank, with the explanation as a student sees it. These particular questions are kept out of the mock papers, so reading them here does not use anything up.
Sample 1 of 2
A health visitor conducts a home consultation for a mother experiencing mild postnatal depression and difficulties establishing infant sleep routines. The health visitor implements targeted, short-term expert support to assist the mother with these specific concerns. Which level of support within the 4-tier Healthy Child Programme does this intervention represent?
Select one answer.
AUniversal Partnership Plus level support
BCommunity level support
CUniversal Plus level supportAnswer
DUniversal level support
Why
Universal Plus level support is defined by the delivery of time-limited, targeted expert intervention for identified additional needs such as mild postnatal depression and sleep problems. Universal Partnership Plus would be required if there were complex continuous safeguarding concerns or a child protection plan.
NMC Standards of Proficiency Platform 2
Sample 2 of 2
A 48-year-old man attending an annual health review discusses his ongoing cigarette smoking. During the discussion, the patient is in the contemplation stage of change, verbally oscillating between the perceived benefits and drawbacks of continuing an unhealthy lifestyle habit. Which communication strategy should the nurse use?
Select one answer.
AElicit-provide-elicit information exchange
BAction planning and barrier identification
CImportance and confidence scaling
DDecisional balance explorationAnswer
Why
Weighing the positive and negative aspects of an unhealthy habit while in the contemplation stage specifically calls for decisional balance exploration. Importance and confidence scaling would instead be indicated if the patient considered change desirable but felt uncertain about their personal ability to succeed.
Questions in this section are written against the NMC's Future Nurse standards. These are the 12 statements it draws from. You are not expected to memorise them, and they are worth reading once so the language on the paper is familiar. The ones marked are patient safety proficiencies, which every paper has to reach a minimum of.
2.1Understand and apply the aims and principles of health promotion, protection and improvement and the prevention of ill health when engaging with people
2.2Demonstrate knowledge of epidemiology, demography, genomics and the wider determinants of health, illness and wellbeing and apply this to an understanding of global patterns of health and wellbeing outcomes
2.3Understand the factors that may lead to inequalities in health outcomes
2.4Identify and use all appropriate opportunities, making reasonable adjustments when required, to discuss the impact of smoking, substance and alcohol use, sexual behaviours, diet and exercise on mental, physical and behavioural health and wellbeing, in the context of people’s individual circumstances
2.5Promote and improve mental, physical, behavioural and other health related outcomes by understanding and explaining the principles, practice and evidence-base for health screening programmes
2.6Understand the importance of early years and childhood experiences and the possible impact on life choices, mental, physical and behavioural health and wellbeing
2.7Understand and explain the contribution of social influences, health literacy, individual circumstances, behaviours and lifestyle choices to mental, physical and behavioural health outcomes
2.8Explain and demonstrate the use of up to date approaches to behaviour change to enable people to use their strengths and expertise and make informed choices when managing their own health and making lifestyle adjustments
2.9Use appropriate communication skills and strength based approaches to support and enable people to make informed choices about their care to manage health challenges in order to have satisfying and fulfilling lives within the limitations caused by reduced capability, ill health and disability
2.10Provide information in accessible ways to help people understand and make decisions about their health, life choices, illness and care
2.11Promote health and prevent ill health by understanding and explaining to people the principles of pathogenesis, immunology and the evidence-base for immunisation, vaccination and herd immunity
2.12Protect health through understanding and applying the principles of infection prevention and control, including communicable disease surveillance and antimicrobial stewardship and resistancesafety
Questions people ask
Are public health questions really on a nursing exam?
Yes. Promoting health and preventing ill health is one of the seven platforms in the Future Nurse standards, so Part B draws questions from it in every paper.
Do I need UK screening ages?
It helps. Questions about cervical, breast and bowel screening usually turn on the age a programme starts, or on what the nurse should do when somebody has not attended.
Practise this section
Practice is filtered by section, so you can work on this one on its own. Every account gets 10 new questions a day without a card.