Hypertension in Children: Overview of Healthcare Policy Concern and Solution

Hypertension is one of the biggest health concerns in the world now, the rate at which uncontrolled blood pressure is growing is not only evolving among older people but we are seeing high increase in the numbers of children that been diagnosed with hypertension. Projected incidence of hypertension in children is lower than in adults. But hypertension is a significant clinical concern in pediatrics population, and the way the ranges and values are, differs from adults also the management and etiology take different approach. Managing of hypertension in children require an all-inclusive approach including patient and family education, nonpharmacological measures such as exercises and lastly the antihypertensive medications which will be last resort if nothing works to control the diagnosis. The management and prevention of hypertension in Children is the health care policy recognized. Studies have shown an estimate that the incidence of hypertension is roughly 3 percent (Yeh et al., 2015). The existing health care problem is the lack of adequate protocols to help healthy lifestyles choices among children which in return can help decrease the rate of obesity and hypertension in our community. Hypertension regularly happens on along with obesity, which marks about 13.6 million children. This is a problem to the community as it holds a monetary burden on the families and healthcare program. Early awareness of obesity and uncontrolled blood pressures, along with the numbers of children underdiagnosed with hypertension will eventually increases the risk for severe complications such as stroke and other cardiac related disease.

The identified solution to the health care policy is creating more community resources, free community activities so parents can have their children engage in sports and exercise activities such as swimming classes, dance classes, bicycle riding class, and aerobic classes. Having more affordable food products, organic products in the community are expensive so the community should have food drives that are only strictly providing healthy food such as whole grains, vegetables, fruits, water and diet classes. School should be mandated and regulated to cut down on serving the children fatty filling foods, they should serve more vegetables and well-balanced meal. Physical activities should be promoted longer on daily basis for the children and the community should have days in the month that family can get together for marathons and exercising days. As nurses, our job is to advocate for patients, in the community and also to bring awareness to proposed solutions. If we can help the community to promote healthy life style choices, we will not only see the results in children but also their parents and guardians. Obesity is another addition that is common in the community now, this is what is leading to the hypertension prevalence. The relevance of bringing free healthy food drive, creating free activities classes will help the low-income population in the community and also will motivate the high-income members to participate. Based on the interviews I have conducted with some of the patients seen at the outpatient clinic, I concluded that the problem is coming from home, what they children are been fed and what resources they have. Income also play huge roles because, parents cannot afford to enroll their children in physical activities. Parents are also scared to leave their children out to play. Safety is also another concern, if the community feels safe then we can see the children playing and exercises in the park and outdoor settings without having to worry about being kidnapped.

Communication Technique

The Selected elected official is Mayor Craig A.Moe. He was first elected Mayor in City of Laurel in 2002, he was re-elected to his 4th term as Mayor and his term will expire in November 2019. He continues to surprise the community with his great work and the rate at which Laurel has evolved during his terms is implausible. The rationale for this selection is primary because he knows and have lived in Laurel his whole life, there is no one else that can better care for the community better than he will. He has also completed some development that I have witnessed and seen, and people in Laurel speak well of him.

The four beneficial communication/ presentation techniques include verbal communication, written communication, Interpersonal communication and face to face meeting. For success in presentation like this it is required to make sure all communication types are sealed and organized accordingly. Before the face to face meeting with the Mayor, a written and verbal communication should occur first in order to have better understanding of meeting and to better present policy. According to Dolan (2017), Structure your presentation to capitalize on delivery. Deliver the main idea and communicate to the audience what your planned result will be. During presentation we should be mindful of not wasting time and making use of the time given well. Respectable relations with elected officials are built in much the same way they are cultured with anyone else by being friendly and personally helpful, by catering to professional political needs and interests, and by being a useful and trustworthy source of sound information and insight. While remaining professional we also must be care so we don’t come off as being selfish and remain genuine with the presentation.

Self-Evaluation

The video presentation was quite a challenging process as I feel presenting to physical audience is much better, however since it is a new challenge it is worth the risk. The major area that was positive was the way I did the content, I felt I did a good job presenting the top and identifying solutions for the identified policy concern. The most challenging part was staying connected with audience and I feel that is one area to improve on, I felt this was a problem because I was doing the recording with no physical audience present. I was unable to know the ques from my audience, their body language, if they had questions or maybe I confused them with my presentation.

Summary

Hypertension in children is a main problem in the community and it has received little to no recognition from the society. The healthcare facilities are seeing increases in cases of children diagnosed with high blood pressure and as a member of the community and also a nurse, bringing a community-based solution is my responsibility. The community Mayor will be made of the policy and the outcome of the presentation will determine the outcome and the impact in the community. Patients and families need to continuously get educated and reminded on ways to prevent Obesity before it leads to hypertension. Cutting down the problem from the source will help for a better outcome and healthy growth. Policies should be engaged and presented to educational facilities and schools, and the pediatricians should also be considered in determining the most effective and beneficial method to help reduce hypertension in children. involved in determining the most effective policies and educational methods for this group.

References

• Cremonesini, L., & Oben, J. A. (2016). Understanding teenage obesity. Independent Nurse, 2016(18), 33-37
• Candan, & Cengiz. (2005). The approach to hypertension in childhood. Retrieved from http://www.turkpediatriarsivi.com/ENG/jvi.aspx?pdir=tpa&plng=eng&un=TPA-48091&look4=
• Yeh, Y., Brogan Hartlieb, K., Naar-King, S., & Jen, C. K. (2015). Under Reporting of Hypertension in Obese Teenagers. The FASEB Journal, 29(1_supplement), 602-13.
• Dolan, R. (2017). Effective presentation skills. FEMS Microbiology Letters, (24), 1–3. doi:10.1093/femsle/fnx235
• American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons. (2019). How to Communicate with Elected Officials. Retrieved March 30, 2019, from https://www.aaos.org/CustomTemplates/Content.aspx?id=22571&ssopc=1