Assignment: NURS 6050 Assessing a Healthcare Program/Policy Evaluation

Blood Pressure Management Initiative

The blood pressure management initiative implemented was intended to reduce the cases of heart attacks and strokes in the US by urging clinicians, healthcare settings, and patients to emphasize blood pressure control and ultimately enhance the quality performance metric using the guidelines of the American Heart Association (AHA). AHA recommends BP goal of 139/89 mm Hg or less (Arnett et al., 2019). This initiative entails providing new and existing patients a face-to-face education and lifestyle counseling coupled with clinical referral and follow-up, screening and lifestyle awareness through the help of educational resources such as informational letters, health fairs, videos, brochures, reminders, and newsletters, ensuring innovative pharmacy packaging such as calendar blister packaging (CBP) to improve medication adherence and persistence, and enhanced care coordination with collaborative primary care teams using various aspects such as electronic prescribing, self-monitoring of blood pressure through the help of clinical interventions, standardized protocol tools to manage high blood pressure, and medication therapy management programs.

The best way to measure the success of the program is to conduct a comparative analysis of the blood pressures samples taken before and after the program. Consequently, the success of this program was determined by comparing the first resting blood pressures of the respondents taken when they enrolled in the program with the resting blood pressures obtained in the final session. In particular, the number of patients with a BP of 139/89 mm Hg or less was compared to the number of patients who recorded a BP of 139/89 mm Hg and above. Ultimately, the program proved a success since the number of patients with a 139/89 mm Hg or less significantly outweighed the patients with a BP of 139/89 mm Hg and above.

After reaching out to the potential participant, this program attracted 320 patients. However, 32 patients were excluded for failing to meet inclusion criteria. Besides, 12 patients also left before completing the program. Consequently, 276 patients participated in the program. The impact of this program was mostly successful with majority of the participants (242) recording outstanding positive improvement and outcomes on the blood pressure management.

The evaluation of program was conducted by program-based data such as client record, administrative records, observation, interviews with clients, and surveys. This data is vital in understanding the program’s performance include the type of output it achieve. Moreover, quantitative data was also used to evaluate the number of patients with both positive and negative outcomes after the execution of program.

The stakeholders identified in this program included the patients with high blood pressure, social workers, and hypertension quality improvement steering team that comprised of the nurses, clinical leaders, operational leaders, and clinical leaders. Of these stakeholders, patients with high blood pressure stand to benefit the most from the program because they are target population and so, if the program succeeds, they will undoubtedly reap the benefits of the program.

Essentially, the rationale of this program was to seek strategies to improve the blood pressures in hypertensive patients in the healthcare facility. Consequently, the outcome showed positive improvement in blood pressure management which ultimately reduces the risk of cardiovascular incidences. Therefore, the program met original intent and objective since it proved feasible to improve the management of high blood pressure among the hypertensive patients who enrolled for the program (Carey & Whelton, 2018).

Since this program has been tested in the healthcare facility and demonstrated to be effective in managing the blood pressure, it is highly recommended to be fully implemented in the organization to help in mitigating the rising cases of high blood pressure. Besides, the program should be implemented alongside cardiac rehabs to help enhancing the quality metric which are anchored on the guidelines of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR).

A nurse advocate can evaluate this policy by using the program-based data such as client record, administrative records, observation, interviews with clients, and surveys to understanding the program’s performance include the type of output it achieve. Secondly, a nurse advocate can use quantitative data to evaluate the program after year by comparing number of patients with both positive and negative outcomes after the execution of program to help in determining whether or not the program is successful.

High blood pressure is a growing public health issue in the US. According to CDC (2020), almost 500, 000 deaths reported in the US in the year 2017 were attributed to hypertension as the primary or contributory cause. High blood pressure tends to make patients susceptible to risk heart diseases and stroke, which are also major causes of death in the US. Therefore, it is proper to utilize the blood pressure management initiative proposed in this program to avoid the risk of health issues in the future.