Canfield Fair Journal

In this week's clinical I was at the Canfield Fair on Monday from 12-2 pm. In that short

2-hour period I was taking people's blood pressures and educating them when I could. I saw

mostly the middle-aged population from ages 40-60 years of age. With a few exceptions, my

siblings being a couple of people under that age group and my grandparents being over that age

group. I was able to teach some people things about blood pressure. Someone was asking me

what determines his top and bottom number of blood pressure. Another person asked why there

is so high and what makes it so high. And of course, I had the most common question what can I

do to lower my blood pressure? All around I did about 15-18 blood pressures and it helped me

freshen up my skills.

The primary level of health care is for the prevention of disease or injury. If anybody was

there and was within normal limits our teaching would be part of the primary levels. Teaching

them how to keep their blood pressure lower by diet and exercise and monitoring it occasionally.

With physical assessments and hypertension screenings fitting into the secondary level of health

care that is where most people were. We were trying to identify any hypertension in its earliest

stage so we could let them know to exercise and eat a proper diet with lower sodium intake to try

and lower it naturally without pharmacological measures. If they were to try and exercise and eat

healthy and that didn’t work they should contact a physician to prevent any further

complications. Unfortunately, that was not the case for all. I had one patient with a systolic

pressure of 168 and he told me that's low for him and he takes medication every day to control it.

For a person like him, he would be in the tertiary level of health care. He would be there because

he has already been diagnosed with hypertension and he has been treating it. The treatments are
hopefully preventing any further damage to his body and giving him the best quality of life

possible.

I used education theories, principles, and strategies when teaching individuals. We were

also explaining to everyone to expect a little bit of a higher reading than their baseline because

they were walking around sweating. Also, they were eating a bunch of unhealthy foods which all

of those thing can raise blood pressure. I was able to teach some people that they do this at home

with an electronic cuff that allows them to get a reading without going to a doctor. Then once

you find your normal levels you will be able to see any deviations from them. I was also able to

teach the one guy that even though he is on blood pressure medication it can’t do all the work for

you. The best results would come if he controlled his diet and exercise along with the

medication. Another good teaching point would be to tell individuals to stop smoking for various

reasons. Blood pressure is one of those reason it can increase the blood pressure. Even though we

were not there for this we can teach them about the negative effects smoking can have on their

lungs and the benefits of stopping.

Although we were only there for 2 hours it was a fun first experience in the community to

let us see what the future of this class may bring. Getting to meet and interact with people, not in

a hospital or nursing home setting was a nice change. I am excited about this clinical it sounds

like it will be way different and less stressful than a hospital.