HEALTH PROMOTION STRATEGIES 2
Health Promotion Strategies for a Hypertensive Patient
Amy, 38, is an elementary school teacher living with her husband and two sons. On
that fateful day, she was coming back from a lunch break but fell at the doorstep of her
teaching methods and classroom management class. She was promptly rushed to the hospital
where I worked as a nurse. We diagnosed her with hypertension; her BP was way above
normal—her systolic was 142 mmHg while her diastolic was 90 mmHg. Additionally, with a
height of 5 feet 2 inches and a weight of 246 lbs, her BMI was disturbingly high. The doctor
gave her oral Chlorthalidone (Hygroton), to which she responded positively. We also learned
that she was already on cholestyramine (to help lower her cholesterol levels) having been
prescribed to her a few months earlier when she went for a regular medical checkup. The
good news was that she never smoked and always went to the gym whenever she could.
If I were to design and implement suitable health promotion strategies for Amy, I
would recommend educational and dietary approaches. Educational intervention will be
aimed at increasing her awareness of the importance of having insurance considering that
lack of it is associated with poor screening rates, compliance with medication, and blood
pressure control. I would then enroll her into a participatory health education group to help
her understand her health condition adequately; a necessary step in making sure she takes the
initiative in making appropriate life adjustments (Kumar, 2015). Furthermore, I would start
her on the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, an eating program geared
towards helping overweight people lose weight. It involves eating lots of fruits, vegetables
and whole grains in addition to lean meats, fish, and chicken (Juraschek, Gelber, Choi, Appel,
& Miller, 2016). The diet would also be intended for reinforcing hypertension management
as it will be designed in a way that makes sure Amy lowers her cholesterol level without
having to change much of her lifestyle and food preferences.
