In the previous assessment, the key aim has been identifying hypertension and factors that have been making it hard for the patients to achieve positive health outcomes. Hypertension among older patients is a growing healthcare problem due to more resources required to achieve the most anticipated results. There has been an increasing trend of individuals diagnosed with hypertension. It is time for the healthcare facilities and all the involved parties to identify solutions that shall contribute to better care and much more as reducing the prevalence of the condition in the community. In most cases, the negative outcome results from patients not adhering to recommended interventions. The interventions to manage hypertension include lifestyle modifications and adherence to the prescribed antihypertensive medications. This article explores hypertension and elaborates on its effective solutions.
Role of Leadership and Change Management
Effective strategies have been proven effective in treating patients diagnosed with a chronic condition such as hypertension. A healthcare facility must have effective leaders with leadership skills and traits supporting changes and innovation. As a nurse leader, it is necessary to identify the problem and its effective solution to highlight the need for change and its contribution to ensuring the best outcomes among the affected populations (Kodama & Fukahori, 2017). Healthcare facilities have limited resources that may need toneed to be moremore, especially for managing chronic conditions. The role of a nurse leader is planning and ensuring the availability of resources and utilization of the limited available resource to promote quality of life.
Nurse leaders are vital for planning as they understand that hypertension is a chronic condition that predisposes the patient to long-term care and management. There are numerous challenges that nurse leaders anticipate facing during the process of care. Failure to address the challenges contributes to adverse results such as poor health outcomes, development of disabilities and premature deaths. Change is the only available alternative that ensures the best practice solutions are introduced in healthcare facilities. There are well-stipulated porches that the change process should follow in a healthcare organization.
The first initiative is the nursing leaders engaging the involved stakeholder through effective communication concerning the problem and the need to have a change process that shall see the highlighted interventions being utilized in the care process (Kodama & Fukahori, 2017). Involving stakeholders and utilizing effective communication skills is necessary during the change process because it reduces resistance during implementation. Through communication, it is necessary to identify the role of each stakeholder so everyone feels vital during the implementation state (Kodama & Fukahori, 2017). Teaching the healthcare provers ensures that all participants fulfil their responsibilities, making the process faster and less costly to the organization. A nurse leader must ensure that the patient is part of the process all the targeted interventions are likely to be included in her care plan. Involving the patients makes them understand the need for the intervention and their roles in resolving the care problem.
Communication and Collaboration Strategies
Communication and collaboration ensure that the healthcare providers understand patients’ issues and are ready to resolve them. A healthcare facility encompasses healthcare providers from different disciplines. Healthcare providers have varying knowledge and skills in the management of different conditions. Collaboration ensures that the different disciplines work as a team in resolving care issues (Busari et al., 2017). A collaborative team is effective as it analyzes the available skills and implements care interventions that apply to the patient’s case, leading to the best outcomes.
Success in the care and management of chronic conditions is determined by the ability of the healthcare team to communicate with each other and the patient. Communication is vital in healthcare as it ensures that the care team understands care needs. In contrast, the care team relies on communication to educate the patient and her family on hypertension and the best practice care management strategies available. Healthcare facilities capitalize on effective communication strategies, for instance, utilizing technologies that ensure timely information delivery. There is a need to have a streamlined flow of information from one department to another which can be made possible through the adoption of communication technologies. Communication also contributes to collaboration by effectively sharing information from one care provider or department to another.
Interdisciplinary collaboration is an effective strategy for managing patients with chronic conditions such as hypertension. The practice ensures that collective decision-making leads to the provision of the most effective care practices (Busari et al., 2017). For instance, the care team assesses the patient’s problem and deliberates on effective management strategies. Elderly patients with hypertension require the best strategies to prevent heart attack or stroke complications. Interdisciplinary collaboration is effective in identifying additional patients’ issues or complications early. The team entails experts that can assess the patient and determine the fate by advising on predisposed complications and initiating preventive and management measures early. The care coordination team also relies on the effectiveness of collaborative methods. Care coordination shall involve the healthcare prodder assessing the patient and planning care among the invoked healthcare providers. Collaboration ensures that the team understands care issues and plans care to prioritize the patient’s needs.
State Board Nursing Practice Standards
Various policies have been enacted and implemented to ensure the provision of the best care services in healthcare organizations. The most famous policy is the Affordable Care Act, which President Obama enacted into law (Kominski et al., 2017). Hypertension is a chronic condition. Initially, it was challenging for an individual with a preexisting condition to purchase health insurance coverage. The policy ensures that individuals with preexisting conditions can have health insurance coverage, vital in ensuring accessibility to affordable, quality, safe healthcare services. ACA ensures that elderly patients are also covered and can utilize available healthcare resources to improve their outcomes.
The ACA not only ensures the availability of affordable care but mandates healthcare facilities to ensure quality and safe healthcare services. The call has led to the introduction of relevant care practices for improving health outcomes among patients with chronic conditions such as hypertension. Kominski et al. (2017) further highlight that the enactment of ACA facilitated care coordination in managing these conditions. Among patients with hypertension, care coordination shall ensure linking to available community resources, ensuring appropriate follow up and providing the patient with a comprehensive education on care and management of hypertension.
Proposed Interventions
The solution documents highlight three proposed interventions that are necessary for improving health outcomes among hypertension patients. Interdisciplinary collaboration ensures that there is the provision of quality care to all patients. Interdisciplinary collaboration reduces medication errors through collective decision-making in the care process (Busari et al., 2017). The patient received comprehensive education and became part of the care. The patients adhere to all recommendations, including lifestyle modification and adherence to the prescribed antihypertensive medication. Collaboration ensures collective decision-making and the proposal of better care management practices.
Collaboration also paves the way for care coordination to be effective. Care coordination is a form of collaboration where healthcare providers understand the patient’s care needs and deliberate and organize care activities among the involved care providers (Karam et al., 2021). Each healthcare provider must fulfil their roles and responsibilities, leading to positive outcomes. Karam and others demonstrate that collaboration and care coordination are effective in managing patients with hypertension because they also ensure that the patients are linked to available community resources. Community resources are necessary, especially when the patient is discharged from the healthcare facility. The resource ensures the patient can continuously access health information and other provisions such as medication or peer support from other individuals living with hypertension.
The last intervention is the utilization of technology in healthcare. There is a need to embrace technologies and ensure timely and streamlined communication in a healthcare facility. Technologies such as telehealth are also relevant, especially among patients having chronic conditions. The patients require long-term care and management, and interventions subsidizing the cost of care are relevant. Telehealth ensures that patients can access health information and have appointments and evaluations without travelling to the healthcare facility (Gajarawala & Pelkowski, 2021). The patient does not stop his activities to honor a hospital appointment. The patient’s cost of transport to and from the healthcare facility is utilized in purchasing medications and nutritious meals.
Conclusion
This article explores hypertension and elaborates on its effective solutions. The most utilized interventions include technologies, interdisciplinary collaboration and care coordination. All these interventions entail having numerous healthcare providers working toward achieving a similar goal. Interdisciplinary collaboration ensures that there is the provision of quality care to all patients. Interdisciplinary collaboration reduces medication errors through collective decision-making in the care process. Technologies such as telehealth are also relevant, especially among patients having chronic conditions. The patients require long-term care and management, and interventions subsidizing the cost of care are relevant.
References
Busari, J. O., Moll, F. M., & Duits, A. J. (2017). Understanding the impact of interprofessional collaboration on the quality of care: a case report from a small-scale resource-limited health care environment. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 10, 227–234. https://doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S140042
Gajarawala, S. N., & Pelkowski, J. N. (2021). Telehealth Benefits and Barriers. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners: JNP, 17(2), 218–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2020.09.013
Karam, M., Chouinard, M. C., Poitras, M. E., Couturier, Y., Vedel, I., Grgurevic, N., & Hudon, C. (2021). Nursing Care Coordination for Patients with Complex Needs in Primary Healthcare: A Scoping Review. International Journal of Integrated Care, 21(1), 16. https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.5518
Kodama, Y., & Fukahori, H. (2017). Nurse managers’ attributes to promote change in their wards: a qualitative study. Nursing Open, 4(4), 209–217. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.87
Kominski, G. F., Nonzee, N. J., & Sorensen, A. (2017). The Affordable Care Act’s Impacts on Access to Insurance and Health Care for Low-Income Populations. Annual Review of Public Health, 38, 489–505. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031816-044555
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