Sharon Graham highlights the simplicity and brevity of opportunistic interventions that health professionals can use to persuade children and their parents to consider positive lifestyle changes

Make Every Contact Count is a public health strategy and not entirely a new idea in nursing, but one that all nurses need to be more conscious of when dealing with patients and the public. The strategy is based on the fact that it is simple and easy to be tactful in delivering correct, brief health advice of any kind, in any setting, whether as nursing students or nurse consultants. Such opportunistic intervention may be opposed or ignored, but could be the trigger that encourages people to change their behaviour positively and take responsibility for their health. A sustained change can reduce the potential negative effect of adverse habits on people’s life or on the lives of their children, even in much later years. In this article, the author argues that it is every nurses’ duty to make every contact count for the health of the population now and for the future, and thereby reduce the burdens on the NHS and social services.