Nursing students serve and learn how to check, change, and control blood pressure in the local community

Abstract

Background: High blood pressure is currently affecting 103 million people in the United States and is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, stroke, and heart failure. The American Heart Association (AHA) launched Check. Change. Control. Program (CCC program). The program is an evidence-based hypertension management program that utilizes blood pressure self-monitoring to empower patients/participants to take ownership of their cardiovascular health.

Project: Following the Partnership Model for Service Learning, Miami University and The AHA propose implementing the “Serve and Learn How to Check, Change, and Control: A Community-Based Intervention to Improve Blood Pressure Control” to improve the BP of a diverse group of residents in Middletown and Hamilton cities in Ohio.

Participants: Fifteen nursing students served as volunteer health mentors. Each nursing student recruited five community members over the age of 18 and checked their blood pressure two times every month for four months. 80 community membered were recruited and joined the project for four months.

Results: At the end of the program, more than half of the participants (n = 41) had blood pressure improvement (decrease in systolic or/a diastolic). On third of Tier 1/ HYPERTENSION participants (n = 10) have moved from uncontrolled (> or = to 130/80) to controlled (< or = to 129/79) based on comparing the participants’ 1st blood pressure reading to their last.

Conclusions: The extremely positive effects of this project are an eye-opening on the need of applying the program on a larger scale. To apply this program on a larger scale, partnerships with community organizations such as community health and wellness centers are needed. These partnerships will provide quality access to healthcare. The students will be able to meet participants where they are in their communities in a safe, vibrant, open and welcoming centers.