Self-engagement to decrease blood pressure readings and decrease non-compliance.

Hypertensive patients are the patients that are seen in every aspect of health-care. They are seen in outpatient clinics, home health, in-patient settings, and in home health. Many times these patients have an abundance of education to absorb and many medications to take on a daily basis. The interest of how these patients are engaged in their own health-care and how it affects their blood pressure readings. Many patients may know that they take a medication for their blood pressure, but they might not remember the name, dosage, or frequency of the medication. When a patient cannot recall their medications, it can be detrimental in how a provider cares for the patient. Providers in the emergency setting are relying solely on the patients recognition of their own health problems and recall of their current medication list. It is believed that patients that are compliant with taking and knowing their medications will have an improved blood pressure than those who are not complaint. Involving patients and educating them on how to improve their blood pressure should include how to remember taking their medication and providing them with more resources. In a in-patient setting, a chart will be flagged as a hypertensive patient. The designated nurse, after getting consent from them to participate, will get the patient to fill out a specific questionnaire. This is a detailed questionnaire that will ask questions pertaining to their hypertensive diagnosis. This detailed questionnaire will also be filled out in three months. Along with the questionnaire the designated nurse will inform the patient how to properly check their blood pressure and how to document their readings in a log. After the hypertensive patient is discharged, the assigned nurse will call the patient to gather their blood pressure readings and enter them into a computer log. This will be used for further data input to reveal if self engagement/encouragement is successful in improving their blood pressure readings. The goal is to encourage self-care engagement and use motivation interviewing. The results will indicate that self-engagement/encouragement will improve blood pressure readings and decrease ER admissions