Persons who are victims of diabetes are exposed to being victimized by high blood pressure. Likewise, individuals suffering from hypertension also stand very high chances of acquiring complications due to diabetes (Madsen & Burkhart, 2021). For example, persons with hypertension can easily acquire kidney problems and diabetic eyes. Therefore, comorbidity between the two conditions, hypertension and diabetes, sometimes gets inevitable but can only be managed simultaneously. This paper unfolds into the best possible practices that can be applied to ensure both hypertension and diabetes are managed simultaneously.
In defining interprofessional health care, it refers to the merging of two or more disciplines continuously, making the two disciplines work together in helping to assist a patient in regaining and maintaining better health from and be freed from underlying conditions (Madsen & Burkhart, 2021). The disciplines each have an expert professional specializing in either of the disciplines. Therefore, non of the two can operate on their own. Therefore, it calls for working together across multiple levels to make the health care goals realistic in managing the chronic condition. Interprofessional health care, therefore, has a team that may comprise nurses, health professionals, and doctors. To achieve effectiveness in the operation of the team members, there should be clearly defined roles for each team member to ensure there is no conflict in responsibilities (Madsen & Burkhart, 2021). For the team to work and successfully achieve the goal, all the members must cooperate by displaying the characteristics discussed herein.
First, the achievement of the goals calls upon the team members to work on shared goals. The ardent desire of the team should be geared towards ensuring the provision of quality and patient-centered care. Each patient’s aim should be shared among the team members before unanimously settling on action steps. For instance, for a patient experiencing hypertension as a comorbid condition in diabetes, the doctor may recommend that he change his diet to lose some weight (Lee et al., 2021). Losing weight is the goal. The other team members must comply with the recommendation and do their respective responsibilities in ensuring the patient loses weight.
Secondly, the team members need to emphasize sharing knowledge and skills across the levels. In this aspect, there is knowledge sharing at the same level of experience and sharing to another level of experience. Therefore, it means that the knowledge can be shared by the fellow expert of other staff members (Lee et al., 2021). Therefore, the other members need proper training to cope with their responsibilities. Such training needs to be thorough to avoid instances of failure.
Moreover, the team members need to observe mutual respect for other team members. There is a need for each team member to give input towards the desired goal. For them to give such contributions, they need to feel respected and their contributions valued. For best practices in managing hypertension comorbid with diabetes, lower blood pressure is recommended for patients with diabetes (Carol, 2017). Therefore, the team should all raise efforts in achieving this goal.
Research has shown that low salts in the diet and good exercise significantly reduce blood pressure. Similarly, the reduction of weight through exercise has better glycemic control and sensitivity to insulin (Carol, 2017). However, these interventions may not work with all the patients. Therefore, this calls for the use of antihypertensive drugs too alongside lifestyle modifications.
As if that is not enough, inhibitors can also be used to intervene for heart failure comorbid with diabetic renal disease. The inhibitors increase the dysfunction of fibrinolysis and endothelia. The two components are impaired in diabetic patients, increasing the chances of acquiring cardiovascular diseases.
In conclusion, many health issues in a patient call for multiple disciplines to mitigate the situation. Achieving this calls for team members who work cordially and openly towards the same goal.
References
Carol. P. H. (n.d.). What is Interprofessional Health Care? sharinginhealth.ca. Retrieved fromwww.sharinginhealth.ca/health_care/health_care_professionals/health_care_professionals.html on December 18, 2017.
Lee, J. K., McCutcheon, L. R., Fazel, M. T., Cooley, J. H., & Slack, M. K. (2021). Assessment of interprofessional collaborative practices and outcomes in adults with diabetes and hypertension in primary care: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA network open, 4(2), e2036725-e2036725.
Madsen, N., Joyce, C., Vlasses, F., & Burkhart, L. (2021). Effectiveness of an interprofessional ambulatory care model on diabetes: evaluating clinical markers in a low-income patient population. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 1-9.
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