In response to your two peers response attached below, reflect on the appropriateness of your peer’s identified health promotion need based on what is known about Ms. Jones. Additionally, suggest an alternative health promotion need and teaching activity that may benefit Ms. Jones. 

Respond individually to both peers.

Peer Response 1:  

Theresa Debisz posted 

After working closely with Tina Jones, one sociocultural factor noted is Tina’s African American ethnicity. One health promotion need are the health risk factors that Tina is predisposed to given her background. Tina already is obese, diabetic and suffers from asthma, she also reports a family history of high cholesterol, hypertension, and stroke. Given the health background that Tina has provided to us, we can use this information and apply it during a health promotion teaching activity.

“High blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes are the most common conditions that increase the risk of heart disease and stroke” (African Americans and…). Given that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, I think that this would be a great health promotion topic to discuss with Tina Jones. For starters, five lifestyle changes that can be made are to “quit smoking, exercise five times per week, watch your diet, know your numbers, and limit stress” (Team V, 2017). Along with these tips, we can assist Tina on ways to exercise such as going for a walk, taking the stairs at work, joining a gym. She can watch her diet but adding more vegetables to her diet, limiting salt and sugar intake. We can aide in Tina knowing her numbers but showing her a healthy blood pressure reading as well as weight, and assisting her with daily checks. Hopefully knowing how she can manage her risks for heart disease, this will help with Tina’s stress level.

References

African Americans and heart disease, stroke. (n.d.). From https://www.heart.org/en/health-

            topics/consumer-healthcare/what-is-cardiovascualar-disease/african-americans-and-

            heart-disease-stroke

Team, V. (2017). Heart disease: Reducing risks for african-americans. From

https://health.clevelandclinci.org/heart-disease-reducing-risks-for-african-americans/

Peer Response 2:

Jillian Flaherty posted

One sociocultural factor that was obtained from Tina Jones’ assessments was her ethnicity.  Tina Jones is a 28 year old African American student who suffers from diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and asthma.  These health conditions combined with her ethnicity predisposes her to many health conditions such as heart attack and stroke.  It is our job as the nurse to educate her on this and ensure she fully understands that dangers of her lifestyle as well as her strong family history of heart disease and stroke. 

One health promotion that can be addressed is her diet.  Ms Jones stated during assessment that she often eats fast food because she is a student who is usually running to classes and does not have time to stop and get some healthy food.  We can educate her on meal prepping the day before and taking her meals with her to ensure that she is getting a heart healthy meal daily.  This will not only help her with heart disease, it will also help her with her weight and diabetes.

According to Human Services Guide, “At the heart of Cultural competency is effective communication that has as its basis a desire for mutual respect and empathy. Cultural competency is sometimes linked to the term diversity in that in encourages acknowledgement and acceptance of differences in appearance, behavior and culture as a whole.” (para 1)  With that being said, I would use effective communication during health promotion with Tina Jones.  This would be done by awareness, attitude, knowledge and skill. (Human Services Guide, para 3) We as nurses need to know our patients and educate accordingly to each person individually. 

References

Human Services Guide. (n.d.). Understanding Cultural Competency. Retrieved January 30, 2020, from 

https://www.humanservicesedu.org/cultural-competency.html