Role of Nurses in Policy Making to Improve Outcomes, prevent Illnesses and Reduce Hospital Readmissions.

Effectiveness of Nursing Standards/or Policies in Improving the Population Outcomes for the Problem

Nurses play an integral role in the care of hypertensive patients in various ways. Nurses identify, refer, and follow up on hypertensive patients. They use the best blood pressure measurement methods and also lead blood pressure screening and verification initiatives in community settings. Furthermore, they determine whether the readings are normal or in the hypertensive range according to the site protocol and then refer for urgent care (Georgiopoulos et al., 2018).

Nurses also assist in the diagnosis and management of hypertensive patients’ medications. According to Georgiopoulos et al. (2018), nurse-led hypertension management results in higher rates of blood pressure control than standard care. In addition, nurses provide patient education, counseling, and skill development, allowing patients to develop better self-management strategies that aid in blood pressure control.

Furthermore, nurses ensure care coordination—they are skilled at establishing and maintaining both formal and informal collaborative links between providers, resources, and services within and outside their practice settings (Georgiopoulos et al., 2018). Moreover, performance measurement and quality improvement indicators, a task of nurses, allow for the determination of whether or not the interventions provided to patients are effective. Leveraging the tasks nurses perform, effective blood pressure control is achieved, with a reduction in complications and mortality rates.

 

Nurses spend significant time working directly with patients, so they are familiar with the specific needs of the people they serve. As a result, nurses can advocate for public policy changes that benefit the patients they care for. They develop policies where none exist, reform harmful or ineffective policies, and ensure those good policies are implemented and enforced (Turale & Kunaviktikul, 2019).

One of the most critical areas where nurses can influence policy is smoking cessation, where policies such as imposing heavy taxes on cigarettes or prohibiting smoking within specific areas may aid in smoking cessation. Because smoking is a risk factor for hypertension, smoking reduction or cessation is an evidence-based lifestyle modification to lower blood pressure (improve outcomes), prevent hypertension, or reduce readmission of already hypertensive patients.

Nursing Theory or Conceptual Framework that frames and guides Actions during my Practicum

Nursing theories provide the foundations for the knowledge and skills used in practice. Comfort is a valuable outcome of care during delivery; I would thus refer to Katharine Kolcaba’s theory of comfort. Kolcaba distinguished three types of comfort: relief, which involves relieving patients of, say, pain, ease, which addresses comfort in a state of contentment, and transcendence, which is a state of comfort in which patients can rise above their challenges. (Oliveira et al., 2020).

Understanding that comfort can take the form of physical, psychospiritual, environmental, or sociocultural contexts; I will ensure that all strategies and care interventions delivered aim to provide comfort to the population group identified.