The selected health problem for exploring in the project is stroke. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stroke refers to a condition that develops due to the occlusion of blood supply to a region of the brain or due to bursting of the blood vessel in the brain (CDC, 2021b). Stroke is among the leading causes of death and disability in the USA. Individuals are increasingly predisposed to stroke due to risk factors such as hypertension, cigarette smoking, diabetes, and heart disease (CDC, 2019). The severity of stroke in the country is seen from the statistics that 795000 people develop stroke on a yearly basis, with 610000 of them being first or new diagnoses (CDC, 2021a). Nurses and other healthcare providers have a critical role to play in promoting coping in patients and families affected by stroke due to its adverse health effects. They also have a responsibility of creating awareness among the population to promote healthy lifestyles and behaviors.
The patient I will be working with during my practicum is a 65-year-old male who was diagnosed with stroke. He lives with his family. He has left-side paralysis due to stroke. Stroke affected the client’s ability to engage independently in most of the activities of the daily living. Often, his family members assist him in undertaking his daily activities such as bathing, dressing, and feeding. Stroke has had an enormous impact on the patient and the family. For example, the costs incurred in treating the patient have been significantly high. The patient requires frequent hospital visits for assessment and physiotherapy sessions, which are cost intensive. The burden of the disorder to the family can also be seen from the loss of productivity. Accordingly, the family spends most of their productive time in ensuring the needs of the patient are met. The consequences of the above impacts have been high level of emotional and financial stress to the family, increasing the need for me to work with them in identifying the effective ways of coping with the demands of stroke.
The health problem of stroke is relevant to my practice as a baccalaureate nurse because of a number of reasons. Firstly, stroke is considered among the leading causes of disability and mortality in the USA. The CDC reports that 1 in every 6 mortalities due to cardiovascular disease in the US in 2018 was attributed to stroke. It also reports that a person in the US dies from stroke in every four minutes in the US with one person developing it in every 40 seconds. The cost-burden of stroke is high as seen from the fact that the state incurred $46 billion between 2014 and 2015 in the USA (CDC, 2021a).
The other relevance of stroke to my practice is the fact that it is largely attributable to preventable factors. Accordingly, evidence shows that preventable factors cause stroke. They include hypertension, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, smoking, and physical inactivity. It also arises due to other causes such as metabolic syndrome, high levels of lipids and cholesterol, and poor dietary habits (Virani et al., 2021). The population may be predisposed to the risk factors due to their lack of or low level of awareness. Nurses have a critical role to play in creating awareness among the public, promoting the health of those at risk, and providing optimum care to the affected patients and their families, hence, the relevance of the issue to my practice.
Nurses have a critical role to play in the prevention and management of stroke in their populations. They utilize national guidelines and evidence-based data in the prevention and management of stroke. The health promotion and prevention strategies they employ in their practice includes the prevention of risk factors through healthy lifestyles and behaviors and treating conditions such as hypertension to reduce the risks of stroke. Nurses also work in collaboration with other healthcare providers to facilitate coping with the demands of stroke among the affected patients and their families. For example, they link patients and families with the existing support groups to ensure their optimum health and coping with demands of stroke. In addition, they adopt care coordination to ensure high quality, safe and efficient care for the affected patients and families. The above interventions align with those I witness in nursing practice in the organization I work.
Evidence-based practice is important in addressing the care needs of patients and families affected by stroke. However, barriers to the use of evidence-based interventions in addressing the p
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