Nursing: Mid-term Assignment - Research Paper Example

? Evidence Based Practice Nursing: Mid-term Assignment Answer In the time of my clinical practices in the past semester, I chose to pay particular attention to patients suffering from hypertension. Hypertension is a disease that makes targets of people regardless of their age, including infants (Dionne, Abitbole, & Flynn, 2012), which is rather interesting as the disease or disorder is related to the pumping of the heart. If the heart has to work harder than the average rate, then the elevated rate of blood flow in the arteries of a person may point towards hypertension. Even though there is only a small amount of 5 to 10 percent of patients who suffer from secondary hypertension; hypertension with a reason behind it, even primary hypertension can prove to be very dangerous to a person’s health. Primary hypertension, hypertension without any underlying cause or reason behind it, captures a larger amount of patients than secondary hypertension, but it has still proven to be fatal as it can cause heart attack or heart failure. High blood pressure, hypertension (Dugdale, 2011) or elevated blood flow in the arteries may seem little but when the said elevation continues in a patient with moderation, it can still shorten one’s life expectancy. There is a saying which states that one’s life is not measured by the days we live but the breaths we take, and hypertension just follows that rule. Infants, children, adolescents, adults and the elderly – everyone can happen to suffer from hypertension. The disorder that captures every kind of audience should be paid attention to and for that, thiazide, an antihypertensive drug is suggested as the first line treatment. The prescription of thiazide in the cases of hypertension is supported by the United States guidelines, World Health Organization and the Cochrane collaboration after collecting enough evidence. Even though thiazides are the first line treatment for patients suffering from hypertension, I believe it is rather wrong of medical practitioners to prescribe thiazides to those patients. Thiazide, an antihypertensive drug, has its side effects just like any other drug. Those side effects include (Ellison & Loffing, 2009): ~ Dizziness ~ Headache ~ Blurred vision ~ Upset stomach ~ Vomiting ~Nausea ~ Loss of appetite Even though most of these symptoms are common ones that occur almost from every medicine, but in this case I believe that thiazides are not the right prescription for patients of hypertension. All the side effects that thiazides include are also the symptoms one goes through when they are experiencing a phase of hypertension. I believe that if thiazides are prescribed to a patient suffering from hypertension and they experience any of these side effects, they will not be able to distinguish if they are going towards a recovery phase or are still in their hypertensive phase, and might end up considering other options or feel helpless of themselves. Blurred vision, headaches, shortness of breaths and dizziness are included in the list of symptoms for hypertension as well (Cunha, n.d.) Answer 2 There have been many unreported cases of hypertension in the medical history and most of the times patients for hypertension are only diagnosed with the disorder after drastic measures. It gets very hard for medical officials to tell if a person is a patient of hypertension when someone comes in for a diagnosis because it can only be judged after regular records of high blood pressure on a continued basis. In most of the diseases that patients come in with, they are recorded with a higher blood pressure because of the pain that they might be going through, but every patient recorded with a higher blood pressure cannot be a patient of hypertension, which makes it a difficult task for health officials. If given a personal choice, I would not choose to recommend thiazides for patients with hypertension. I see no reason why a person suffering from a high heart rate should be given a medicine that might worsen their situation with the many side effects it holds. Vomiting, nausea and headache will only be an increase to the patient’s pain. The things that a person goes through due to hypertension already make it hard for them to perform their daily tasks because of an increased heart rate; if they are given a medicine which causes conditions in which a person’s heart has to work even harder, that would be the worst possible case for them. Hypertension also causes patients to have an increased amount of stress as their hearts work faster. If they are given a medicine that, in its way of helping them, makes them go through many other health difficulties, they will only stress themselves further thinking themselves as helpless and end up facing the worst of consequences if a stroke occurs. Answer 3 I would firstly approach those hypertension patients who have reportedly confirmed that they tend to stress themselves out more as compared to people who don’t suffer from hypertension and ask about their personal experiences with thiazides. I would form my observations on the basis of asking questions to the patients and deduce results as to whether the medicine (“Thiazide,” n.d.) was helpful or not? If not, what was the reason for that? Did they try to reach their doctor again when the first prescription did not work? If not, did they try to approach any other doctor to help them out? And so on. After obtaining my results, I would consult my fellow nursing colleagues and ask them to help me out by asking their patients of hypertension to do the same and then take the results to a senior medical official and show them that and with their help make a better approach to making a determination for this cause. Answer 4 Sources that we may not have approached in this case might be the amount of patients that suffer from an increased stress level due to hypertension. Most researchers these days are dedicated towards finding a better cause of hypertension because, even though it is such a common disorder, there still has been no surety as to what the main cause of hypertension may be or why officials are unable to diagnose it in the beginning phase of the disorder. Many theories have been offered throughout the medical society, but nothing has proven to be a milestone for us. It would be a step ahead if we pay attention to the stress that patients suffer from. If we are able to find out how stress may be related to hypertension, and compare the results of how many patients suffering from stress ended up being a patient of hypertension, we might be able to achieve a strong lead towards the discovery of the cause for the disorder and may be able to diagnose patients in their starting phase. All the triggers relate to the brain, but knowing if they can be related to any one particular aspect of the brain by studying the patients suffering from stress and the patients suffering from hypertensions, any common aspect in both studies found might able us to achieve what the medical society is looking for. Answer 5 The question that I believe is not currently being addressed by health officials is: 1. How many percent of the global deaths due to heart failures in the recent years had the reason of hypertension behind them and what has the medical society done to acknowledge them? References Cunha, J. P. (n.d.). High blood pressure (hypertension). MedicineNet. Retrieved July 7, 2012, from http://www.medicinenet.com/high_blood_pressure/art icle.htm. Dionne, J. M., Abitbole, C. L., & Flynn, J. T. (2012, January 27). Hypertension in infancy: diagnosis, management and outcome. PubMed - US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. Retrieved July 7, 2012, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21258818. Dugdale, D. C. (2011, October 6). Hypertension. PubMed Health – U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved July 7, 2012, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001502/. Ellison, D. H., & Loffing, J. (2009, June 29). Thiazide effects and adverse effects insights from molecular genetics. American Heart Association. Retrieved July 7, 2012, from http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/54/2/196.full. Thiazide diuretics – oral. (n.d.). MedicineNet. Retrieved July 7, 2012, from http://www.medicinenet.com/thiazide_diuretics-oral/article.htm. Read More