Document Type

Report

Publication Date

Spring 2024

Date of Final Presentation

4-4-2024

Committee Chair

Rosanna Moreno, DNP, MBA, RN, NE-BC, CPPS, FACHE

Committee Member

Misty Robertson, DNP, RN, FACHE

Coordinator/ Chair of DNP Program

April Howell, DNP, RN

Abstract/ Executive Summary

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and it negatively contributes to poor health outcomes (Martinez-Garcia et al., 2018). Within the Antelope Valley in Lancaster California, 30.3 % of city residents have a hypertension diagnosis (Los Angeles County of Public Health, 2017). Much like the city at large, hypertension is a critical issue at AV Pediatrics and Family Medicine (AV Peds). This issue is driven by a variety of factors including a lack of understanding about hypertension and medication compliance, and a lack of understanding about healthy lifestyle choices. Providers at AV Peds have seen an increase in non-adherence to health plans in hypertensive patients. Patients have expressed not feeling supported in the management of their hypertension citing a lack of ongoing educational opportunities. The lack of a formalized hypertensive educational program, which ensures patients fully understand how to manage hypertension, places patients at an increased risk of poor health outcomes. Despite evidence that a change needs to be made within clinic education, behavior change in any population can be extremely difficult when patients do not believe they have the capacity to change. At AV Peds patients have expressed a self-care deficit in regards to hypertensive education. The aim of this scholarly project was the creation of an educational program that would help lower blood pressure values of hypertensive patients. A uniform educational hypertensive program would help to improve patient outcomes and increase patient knowledge. AV Peds adopted the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Hypertension Management toolkit, a program that has been shown to successfully improve blood pressure values. The desired short-term outcomes of this scholarly project included increased self-efficacy, increased hypertension understanding, increased medication compliance, and improved lifestyle choices. Project outcomes were measured through the use of the Generalized Self-Efficacy scale, original questionnaires, and the review of patients’ health journals. The majority of outcomes were analyzed through descriptive statistics examining the differences of the participant’s actions and attitudes towards their understanding about hypertension and management of hypertension before and after the educational intervention. Results showed that the educational program helped to increase participants’ self-efficacy, increase their hypertension knowledge, and increase understanding about medication compliance. Furthermore, it allowed participants to utilize a health journal to log their blood pressure values, daily exercise routines, and healthy diet choices. The findings of the project were consistent with the literature which found that patient exposure to hypertension educational programs which promoted patient advocacy and access to educational resources helped to promote better hypertension control (Tobe et al., 2017; Kilic et al., 2018). The program can be used as a call to action to promote policies within California that directly impact hypertension such as insurance plans receiving higher reimbursement when members have active lifestyles. The program has positive implications in practice helping to better control blood pressure values and its dissemination can help to expand the program within the AV Peds clinic and beyond.

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