Evaluation Of Modifiable Risk Factors for Patients with Elevated Blood Pressure

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to educate care managers at North Country HealthCare on modifiable risk factors of hypertension and the Teach-Back method and to provide them with a handout on modifiable risk factors for hypertension so that they would improve their knowledge of the subject matter by at least 10%. Background: Almost half of the American population have hypertension. Studies have shown that patients can lower blood pressure by using modifiable risk factors such as diet, exercise, limiting salt intake, smoking cessation, and decreasing stress levels. Methods: The Teach-Back method is a tool that providers can use to help practitioners teach patients to retain knowledge in a clinical setting by asking the patient to repeat the information the patient received during the visit and fill in any knowledge gaps. The educational meeting was conducted via a Zoom meeting, and questions were provided via a pretest/posttest survey. Results: Understanding the Teach-Back method may be vital in helping care managers pass information, such as modifiable risk factors for hypertension, to their patients. Care managers demonstrated an understanding of the Teach-Back method based on a demonstration activity. Care managers demonstrated a baseline understanding of modifiable risk factors of hypertension based on pretest results with an improvement of the Teach-Back method based on posttest Results.