Health Promotion of Heart

Preventative measures in heart health can provide communities with a wide-range of benefits. Providing education can be a challenge for nurses and students alike. There can be limited communication skills obtained, lack of empathy, cultural aspects, and lack of confidence. The project focus was to engage fourth-semester nursing students in an associate degree program with tools to provide effective teaching to current and future patient’s or client’s in their upcoming career. A presentation on heart health promotion and prevention was first discussed leading into an interactive real-life patient simulation on, Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome (MODS) to pull the full experience together.

Summary of Teaching Plan

The students had been given prior notice of the heart health promotion and preventative measures prior to class and simulation. The presentation for heart health was simplistic which allowed time to engage in question and answer forum. Students had questions about my education and current position as a nurse. Bringing together the community aspect of heart health and current findings in the field gave the students a different picture of what they may encounter in the real world. It was important to reflect a positive, calm, and therapeutic approach presenting advocation for preventative health. When completion of the presentation came to point, the next communication had was a briefing on their simulation patient and his admission status. The students received a worksheet prior to the scenario to research, study, and fine tune before entering the three-hour simulation. Running the simulation two days prior without the student group was helpful and allowed for troubleshooting if something fell off track. The simulation was different phases of Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome (MODS) with septic shock.

The epidemiological rationale for Heart Health

Advancement of medical therapies, treatments and procedures has presented individuals worldwide living longer but most often with chronic illnesses (Lobchuk et al., 2018). This can be costly to the patient or client and the healthcare systems. According to Lobchuk et al. (2018), to avert his cost and sub-optimal quality of life often associated with chronic illness, health promotion and disease prevention are major breakthroughs in the control of chronic diseases. Lobchuk et al. (2018) states, evidence demonstrates support for upstream approaches that alter determinants of health by promoting wellness and preventing illness through health behavior choices (e.g., smoking cessation, increased physical activity, and healthy dietary choices).

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