Week 1 Discussion
Prompt #1
NURS 561 Health Promotions and Disease Prevention
After participating in the Pathways to Safer Opioid Use simulation exercise, I reflected on a patient I had previously empowered. The patient was suffering from hypertension and was struggling with coronary artery diseases, stroke and heart failure. After engaging the patient, I encouraged George to start taking blood pressure tests from home which can help determine whether the treatment of the blood pressure is effective, to confirm the blood pressure levels and to control high blood pressures. I advised the patient that blood pressure tests at home are cheap and readily available (Butalia et.al. 2018). George told me he was also struggling with drug abuse. I advised him to reduce alcohol, consider having diets which have low levels of salt and seek medical attention from specialists. Some medication that the patient may consider include Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), and this helps to block chemical action that narrows blood vessels.
One strategy demonstrated by Rhoda involved understanding the suffering that the patient is experiencing. High blood pressure caused a lot of pain to George; hence it was advisable for me to understand what the patient was undergoing hence recommended the best medication to reduce the pain. Another strategy involves providing educational materials to the patient so that he can get insights about the prevention and treatment of high blood pressure. Nutbeam, McGill & Premkumar (2018), one challenge encountered in efforts to improve health literacy in patients having a fixed mindset. Patients with a fixed mindset are not willing to share their health status, and hence chances of them being treated are low. As a result, their health conditions continue to worsen. The solution to a fixed mindset is encouraging patients to feel free to explain their conditions in order to help them improve their health conditions. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
References
Butalia, S., Audibert, F., Côté, A. M., Firoz, T., Logan, A. G., Magee, L. A., … & Nerenberg, K. A. (2018). Hypertension Canada’s 2018 guidelines for the management of hypertension in pregnancy. Canadian Journal of Cardiology, 34(5), 526-531.
Nutbeam, D., McGill, B., & Premkumar, P. (2018). Improving health literacy in community populations: a review of progress. Health promotion international, 33(5), 901-911.