NURS FPX 6614 Assessment 1 Defining a Gap in Practice PICOT Question In overweight adults with hypertension, do lifestyle modifications compared to antihypertensive medications result in lower blood pressure within a six-month period? Population: Overweight adults Intervention: Lifestyle modifications Comparison: Lifestyle modifications versus medications

PICOT Question

In overweight adults with hypertension, do lifestyle modifications compared to antihypertensive medications result in lower blood pressure within a six-month period?

Population: Overweight adults

Intervention: Lifestyle modifications

Comparison: Lifestyle modifications versus medications

Outcome: Low blood pressure

Time: Six months

Explanation of the Selected Gap

Proper care planning is essential to mitigate the potentially fatal consequences of hypertension, as noted by Alsaigh et al. (2019). Lifestyle changes play a significant role in reducing blood pressure and delaying the onset of hypertension in otherwise healthy individuals. Before initiating pharmacologic therapy, hypertensive patients should consider implementing lifestyle modifications (Alsaigh et al., 2019). Care coordinators play a crucial role in educating overweight hypertensive patients and assessing their knowledge level through open-ended questions. This is a pivotal aspect of the care coordinator’s role, as it involves instructing patients on making necessary behavioral changes to achieve desired outcomes (Karam et al., 2021).

At the regional level, the Joint National Committee (JNC) recommends lifestyle modifications for hypertensive patients over a six-month period. These modifications include increased physical activity, dietary changes for obese patients, reduced salt intake, and limited alcohol consumption (de la Sierra, 2019). The PREMIER trial, the largest clinical trial in the US evaluating blood pressure management through lifestyle changes, demonstrated that weight loss, increased physical activity, and improved dietary choices effectively controlled hypertension without the need for medication (Mahmood et al., 2019). While both lifestyle modifications and medications can lower blood pressure within six months, medications may manifest side effects during this period (Kebede et al., 2022).

Services and Resources for Care Coordination

Resources: Healthcare teams can utilize social media messages, fact sheets, and handouts to educate obese hypertensive patients about lifestyle modifications.

Potential Services: Care teams, consisting of nurses, physicians, pharmacists, information technology specialists, and hospital administrators, can collectively raise awareness among obese hypertensive patients about adopting healthy lifestyle choices. Telehealth can be employed to monitor patients’ compliance with prescribed lifestyle changes (Volterrani & Sposato, 2019).

Barriers: Several obstacles hinder the care coordination process, including patients’ lack of trust in healthcare professionals, inability to engage in self-management practices, challenges related to health information technology, resource constraints, patient beliefs, motivation, and depression (Heinert et al., 2019).

The Type of Care Coordination Intervention

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), care coordination is underpinned by five pillars, which include teamwork between staff and patients, effective health information technology utilization, care and medication management, and patient-centered care (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2018).

Specific and Practical Way

To educate obese hypertensive patients about appropriate lifestyle adjustments, healthcare professionals should utilize the Chronic Care Model. Healthcare organizations need to foster responsibility and accountability, holding regular meetings with key stakeholders such as nurses, physicians, nutritionists, pharmacists, and information technologists. These meetings facilitate communication, knowledge exchange, goal development, and evidence-based care planning (Pilipovic-Broceta et al., 2018). After the planning phase, stakeholders should proceed to implement the plan, assist patients in achieving self-management goals, and conduct follow-up assessments (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2018).

Support the Strategy for Collaborative Care

A collaborative care strategy should prioritize lifestyle modifications as the primary intervention for healthcare staff and nurses diagnosing hypertension induced by obesity. Overweight hypertensive patients are at greater risk of severe hypertension-related outcomes if they fail to implement lifestyle changes (Csige et al., 2018). Effective collaboration among stakeholders is essential to persuade hypertensive obese individuals to adopt lifestyle changes for optimal health outcomes.

Collaboration is facilitate