Essay on Hypertension

The onset of hypertension marked the beginning of research on the various ways to control and prevent this condition. Various governments and organizations have since developed a pool of guidelines to this effect. Such strategies range from telehealth intervention strategies, quality improvement strategies, antihypertension medication adherence strategies, and lifestyle modification strategies (Whelton et al., 2018). Despite this pool serving as a point of reference for lifestyle adjustment, there has continuously been no significant impact on the incidence of hypertension, which has prompted the invention of new approaches to hypertension prevention, awareness, and prevention (Zhou et al., 2019). One such approach is targeting education through self-learning through blended coaching to inform decision-making in adopting disease-friendly lifestyles in the management of hypertension.

Self-learning through blended coaching uses both face-to-face and online learning to connect individual patients with family nurse practitioners in making inquiries, setting goals, and learning different aspects of health. Education is undoubtedly the way out of the majority of the health concerns currently affecting the globe. With the emergency of many lifestyle diseases in recent decades, education seems the most viable platform for effecting the various control measures for these fast-emerging lifestyle diseases. This happens to be the case for the control and prevention of hypertension.

Accordingly, education offers important insight that guides people in making appropriate decisions by avoiding and adopting recommended lifestyle practices to control and prevent hypertension. Current studies reveal a discrepancy in hypertension control, awareness, and treatment, with young adults scoring lower than their adult counterparts. This gap is sustained by such factors as inadequate care that leads to reliance on traditional clinical settings and various sex-related differences in hypertension awareness (Zhang and Moran, 2017). In this regard, self-learning through blended coaching can help increase hypertension awareness among the young population and control and prevent this condition.

On assessing the impact of education in healthcare, higher education levels among patients have reflected lower risks of hypertension. In contrast, lower education levels have been associated with hypertension, particularly among urban dwellers (Brunstorm et al., 2020). As such, for adequate control and prevention of hypertension, various education-oriented strategies, like the proposed self-learning through blended coaching, need to be effected to realize this objective. To this effect, Carey et al. (2018) suggest that increasing patient and provider goals for hypertension through such practices as; monitoring hypertension at both patient and clinician levels, crafting effective treatment and diagnosis guidelines, systematically following up patients, and reducing barriers to medication, can be vital in realizing this objective. Besides, clinicians can also target education measures at early life factors among people between 18 and 40 years to increase hypertension awareness and reduce cardiovascular diseases in later years (Hinton et al., 2020).

From a patient perspective, self-care education positively impacts patients’ decision-making and attitudes hence creating self-efficacy, and a sense of quality life, which help control and prevent hypertension (Khademian et al., 2020). When adopted and integrated into modern private platforms and personal gadgets such as mobile programs, education programs can help reduce the incidence of hypertension. For instance, Toro-Ramos et al. (2017) note that mobile platforms have a short-term potential for reducing hypertension. These platforms offer comparative education on hypertension to patients and impact lifestyle trends, thereby reducing hypertension risk. In this regard, online self-directed learning can be utilized to ensure the prevention, control, and management of hypertension. As evidenced by the variations recorded across different study populations, individuals’ backgrounds and cultures affect their knowledge and understanding of the available guidelines on hypertension control and prevention (Parcha et al., 2020). This, therefore, necessitates the adoption of revised approaches to understanding hypertension awareness, control, and prevention, a purpose that can be well served by self-directed learning and blended coaching.

In light of the above analysis on the effectiveness of education in creating awareness, controlling, and preventing hypertension, the recommended clinical practice for this problem is self-direct learning on hypertension by using blended coaching. This approach is convenient for hypertension management and control. It allows individuals to make independent decisions, formulate goals, adopt convenient learning strategies, and adopt a healthy lifestyle that will help reduce the incidence of hypertension in society. Noh and Kim (2019) opine that this approach to patient education and learning has become necessary to enhance competency among the new generations.

Despite these anticipated outcomes, concerns linger around the little research that has been conducted on this approach to patient education. Besides lacking transformational power, the approach is also slow in evolution and may even prove difficult when conducted through e-learning. Nevertheless, self-directed learning through blended coaching is a practical approach for improving clinical practice satisfaction and self-directed learning competency among nurses in clinical practice. This follows studies that have associated more significant improvements in the competency and satisfaction with clinical practice upon implementing self-directed learning (Noh & Kim, 2019).

This proposed clinical practice will mainly help enhance clarity on hypertension management at a personal level. Current research indicates that patient beliefs and attitudes on health and sickness impact their decision-making, dictate perceived vulnerability and hardiness levels, and contribute to their adopted self-care attitudes (Drevenhorn,2018). Therefore, self-directed learning through blended coaching will help clear the negative attitudes and beliefs that have hindered hypertension’s successful control and management. By targeting individuals’ attitudes and clarifying shared beliefs, the proposed practice can curb hypertension in society.

References

Brunström, M., Ng, N., Dahlström, J., Lindholm, L. H., Lönnberg, G., Norberg, M., Nyström, L., & Carlberg, B. (2020). Association of physician education and feedback on hypertension management with patient blood pressure and hypertension control. JAMA Network Open, 3(1), e1918625. Doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.18625

Carey, R. M., Muntner, P., Bosworth, H. B., & Whelton, P. K. (2018). Reprint of: Prevention and control of hypertension: JACC Health Promotion Series. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 72(23), 2996–3011. DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2018.10.022

Drevenhorn, E. (2018). A proposed middle-range theory of nursing in hypertension care. International journal of hypertension. doi.org/10.1155/2018/2858253

Hinton, T. C., Adams, Z. H., Baker, R. P., Hope, K. A., Paton, J. F., Hart, E. C., & Nightingale, A. K. (2020). Investigation and treatment of high blood pressure in young people: Too much medicine or appropriate risk reduction? Hypertension, 75(1), 16-22. Doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.13820

Khademian, Z., Ara, F. K., & Gholamzadeh, S. (2020). Orem’s nursing theory on quality of life and self-efficacy in patients with Hypertension: A quasi-experimental study. International journal of community-based nursing and midwifery, 8(2), 140–149. Doi: 10.30476/IJCBNM.2020.81690.0

Noh, G., & Kim, D. (2019). Effectiveness of a self-directed learning program using blended coaching among nursing students in clinical practice: a quasi-experimental research design. BMC Medical Education, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1672-1

Parcha, V., Patel, N., Kalra, R., Arora, G., & Arora, P. (2020, July). Prevalence, awareness, treatment, and poor control of hypertension among young American adults: race-stratified analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 95, No. 7, pp. 1390-1403). Elsevier.

Toro-Ramos, T., Kim, Y., Wood, M., Rajda, J., Niejadlik, K., Honcz, J., … & Michaelides, A. (2017). Efficacy of a mobile hypertension prevention delivery platform with human coaching. Journal of human hypertension, 31(12), 795-800. doi:10.1038/jhh.2017.69

Whelton, P. K., Carey, R. M., Aronow, W. S., Casey, D. E., Jr, Collins, K. J., Dennison Himmelfarb, C., …Wright, J. T., Jr. (2018). 2017 CC/AHA/AAPA/ABC/ACPM/AGS/APhA/ASH/ASPC/NMA/PCNA Guideline for the prevention, detection, evaluation, and management of high blood pressure in adults: Executive summary: A report of the American college of cardiology/American heart Association task force on clinical practice guidelines. Hypertension, 71(6), 1269–1324. DOI: 10.1161/HYP.0000000000000066

Zhang, Y., & Moran, A. E. (2017). Trends in the prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension among young adults in the United States, 1999 to 2014. Hypertension, 70(4), 736-742. DOI: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.117.09801

Zhou, B., Danaei, G., Stevens, G. A., Bixby, H., Taddei, C., Carrillo-Larco, R. M., … & Rodriguez-Martinez, A. (2019). Long-term and recent trends in hypertension awareness, treatment, and control in 12 high-income countries: an analysis of 123 nationally representative surveys. The Lancet, 394(10199), 639-651. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)31145-6/fulltext