Hypertension Reflection Paper

The educational intervention will focus on diet approaches to stop HTN (DASH) diet, alcohol intake, smoking cessation, weight management, adherence to medication, self-management, stress management, and exercising based on prevailing guideline recommendations developed by Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (James et al., 2014).

Studies show nurses play a very important rule of teaching the patients; especially improve patient’s knowledge about the medications (Bradley et al., 2012). Nurses are responsible to educate the patient about the purpose of every medication and their side effects. It is also necessary to tell them some alterations to the medication list (Bradley et al., 2012). The purpose of teaching the patient is to help them understand how the medications benefit them. In this way, they will become more compliant. In addition, it is important for the patients to know how the medications work. For example, they need to hold the some blood pressure pill if they have low blood pressure. There is another example shows nurses successfully improve patient’s condition through medication education. The study by Van Camp et al. (2012) investigated how nurse-led education and counseling enhance medications adherence in chronic dialysis patients. The medication is called phosphate binder that prevents the patient from absorbing phosphate in the food. The study showed “the mean adherence group increased from 83% to 94%, phosphate values decreased from 4.9 to 4.3 mg/dl and the knowledge of the medications increased by twenty percent” (Van

Understanding whether education and self-efficacy increases adherence to health behavior modification is significant in the nursing world, because it suggests that nurses play a dominant role in patient teaching. As nurses, it is crucial to utilize patient teaching and supporting skills to ensure quality care and better health outcomes in the long run. When a patient is educated, it increase’s their confidence to participate in treatment, improves outcomes, and encourages better health habits. Feeling confident in one’s abilities is key to maintaining adherence to medical regimens, and health behaviors. Patient education can be done in various ways including, PowerPoint’s, handouts, and videos.

The National Patient Safety Goal 13 was to encourage patients to actively involve in their own care as a patient safety strategy. As per the Joint Commission (2007), the teach-back method is the preferred method to address that goal. According to Fenwick ( n.d.), “Teach-back can help providers communicate with people with low health literacy, but it can also help with communicating overall—even with people with proficient health literacy”. Both the National Quality Forum and The Joint Commission endorse the teach-back method for use in teaching and proper administration of discharge instructions for both the patients and caregivers (Fenwick, n.d.). The American Medical Association also provides the tool kit to educate health care professionals in the use of the teach-back method (Fenwick, n.d.).

Hypertension (HTN) is a chronic illness that serves as a main risk factor for cardiovascular disease (Hanus, Simoes, Amboni, Ceretta, & Tuon, 2015). Although medication can manage HTN appropriately, lifestyle modifications make a substantial difference as well. However, many patients go through behavior stages in which he or she contemplate on making the necessary changes to improve their health. One solution to the problem is the development of an educational Hypertension Intervention and Follow-Up program (HIFP). Studies have shown that active educational interventions that incorporate small groups are more effective than passive delivery of educational materials (Pimenta, Caldiera, & Mamede,

The third question asks if patients pay attention to sodium and fluid intake. Patients who are noncompliant with the dietary recommendation can be closely related to worsening heart failure symptoms or hospitalization. The excess of sodium intake may contribute to fluid retention (Heo, Lennie, Moser & Okoli, 2009). The video recommends the daily dose and encourages patients to read labels. One suggestion is simple the use of a quick and easy acronym: S.A.L.T., which stands for Stay away from processed food, Avoid adding salt to foods, Look at sodium levels and Try to eat a balanced diet (Mahtani,

The IOM has stressed the importance of the nursing role in educating patients on disease prevention, management of chronic conditions, and health promotion. This is a subject in which this author is in firm agreement. While providing patient care, it is clear there is a lack of education regarding disease process and management. Patients frequently feel lost regarding their illness. Education will be very important when the shift from acute to primary care occurs. Education and health promotion are areas in which this author plans to transform and improve in her practice.

Friedman, A. J., Boyko, S., Cosby, R., Hatton-Bauer, J., & Turnbull, G. (2009). Effective Teaching Strategies and Methods of Delivery for Patient Education. 37.

This journal will reflect my summary and understanding of three chapters of assigned readings from the Bastable textbook, Nurse as Educator. The diversity and the increasing numbers of older adults presents a challenge for the health care industry with providing adequate, meaningful and constructive teaching moments for this group. The teaching skills of a nurse are enhanced by the ability to understand the literacy level of the adult patient, the various instructional methods, adapting to different settings and the individualizing of patient teaching material. Information gathered from this journal will help improve the overall capacity of my patient teaching skills.

According to Hall and Ross-Kerr (2006) teaching is an interactive process that promotes learning. Generally, teaching and learning begin when a person identifies a need for knowing or acquiring an ability to do something. A nurse, who embodies the role of a teacher provides information that prompts the client to engage in activities that lead to desired change. Teaching is most effective when it responds to the learner’s needs (Potter, Perry, Ross-Kerry, & Wood, 2006, p. 318). In this paper I will include an assessment of the learner, teacher, and resources with a teaching plan. I will provide evidence of implementation along with discussion of teaching material used in the presentation, including the rationale for its use. The paper will

Although teaching may be done first, last, or in the middle of patient care, teaching is a very important part of the nursing process. Teaching is important for the patient and family to understand the importance of their care, and it allows them to make an informed decision on the care they receive. To appropriately teach a patient we must look at the patient’s background, make a nursing diagnosis, develop behavioral objectives, outline the teaching plan, and evaluate the teaching’s effectiveness.

Patient education is fundamental in promoting health literacy. The health care professionals play a crucial role in educating the patients to improve their quality of life by identifying their learning needs, any learning barriers and adopting a teaching method that actively relays knowledge and promotes the active participation of the patient. Health literacy can be defined as the capacity of an individual to gain knowledge, process information, retain knowledge and apply it to life to promote health and wellbeing (Robinson, et al., 2011). Patient education requires the active participation of learners (Bastable, 2014). Managing chronic illness like Heart failure can be challenging for many patients as it requires modifying their behaviours, lifestyles and following a strict diet plan (Baptiste et al., 2014). This paper aims to explain and justify the principles and methods involved in the education session for a Chronic Heart Failure discharge patient. The secondary objective of this paper is to elaborate on the benefits of teaching a

The health professional’s role in teaching at different life stages is very demanding and gratifying. The health care professional should approach patients at their level. According to Falvo (2011), “Effective patient-centered patient teaching uses creative techniques in which psychosocial factors are identified and incorporated” (Pg 84). Medical jargon should not be used during teaching times

Mrs. A (pseudonym) is an 83-year-old Samoan female of Christian religion who was admitted to an urban hospital on 02/04/15 by GP referral. She came in with chest pain associated with productive cough and shortness of breath (SOB) on exertion. She also complained of having recurrent episodes of vomiting mixed with saliva and fatigue. She has a history of asthma, hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus on Metformin and double incontinence due to a long-standing history of intermittent constipation. Her chest computed tomographic (CT) revealed right lower lobe opacity indicating pulmonary consolidation, which means that her right lower lung has accumulated exudates in the alveoli that would have normally been filled by gas, indicative of bacterial pneumonia. Furthermore, a sputum gram stain sample collected from Mrs. A showed gram-positive bacteria, which is also a characteristic of pneumonia. Her blood tests revealed a high haemoglobin count, which may be caused by an underlying lung disease, as well as high white blood cell count confirming the presence of infection. Considering all diagnostic results, Mrs. A was diagnosed with right lower lobe bacterial pneumonia.

Patient education plays a vital role in nursing, and as first year nursing students it is important to our career to develop skills in the process of teaching as well as developmental theories. To practice this teaching process, we conducted two interviews with a 19-year-old female currently in the early adulthood stage. Ghorbani, Soleimani, Zeinali and Davaji (2014) state that patient education has been shown to reduced anxiety of patients and improve the satisfaction of health care. Client education is also said to improve the quality of life, helps to reduce illness complications, maximize independence and ensures that continuity of care is present (Bastable, 2014). Although within the health care system things preventing or decreasing the effectiveness of patient education may include nurses not have the knowledge of what to teach or how to teach it and lack of time and resources (Ghorbani et al., 2014). To understand further the important of patient education we must possess a knowledge of the education process including assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation (APIE) (Bastable & Alt, 2014). Throughout this paper, we will evaluate our use of the educational process by teaching the learner about caffeine.