Health Advocacy Campaign – Hypertension

The number one killer among senior citizens across all races and ethnic groups is hypertension. As the first leading cause of death among hundreds of American adults, this has increased the cost of healthcare provision. In fact, it is estimated that more than a third of the adult population have some the hypertension-related problems that are associated with the type of lifestyle they are living. In 2016, based on the report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), the total medical cost used in the management of patients with this condition in the United States, was estimated to be around $300 billion. Controlling the stress levels as well as high blood pressure aid in reducing the risk of developing hypertension among the adult population. For the majority of individuals, this condition can be prevented through a change of their behavior as well as their lifestyle. Apart from introducing health reforms, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) led to the creation of the National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council that aims at creating a National Prevention Strategy. The objective of the strategy is to make a recommendation as well as develop policies that focus on the prevention of medical conditions such as Hypertension (Kreuter, et al. 2013).

The objective of the Hypertension campaign is to use the experiences of the adult population with a history of health condition. This gives the campaign credibility among the target audience. The current laws require that the participants gave informed consent before taking part any it. The Heart diseases and Stroke legislation of 2011, this law includes the research into the management of chronic diseases such as hypertension, reducing the cases of the disease through prevention strategies. The legislation encourages the American citizens to learn more of the heart-related diseases including the signs and symptoms, as well as how to conduct an audit of their lifestyle.

How the Existing Laws Affect Advocacy

There is plenty of indicators that the current laws and policies are a threat to the public health in regards to the control of hypertension cases; this is despite the act that the Health facilities in the United States have ample professionals with the knowledge on how to prevent the condition. The failure of the policy to create initiatives that are linked to the challenge of the changing lifestyle and lack of enough funding for the prevention program campaign. The laws, as well as the policies, depending on the top-down programs, this is programs that reinitiated at the top by the Federal government through the  Department of health, and passed down to the State government for implementations, as opposed to involving patients or any other organization that represents them directly into the prevention campaigns (Goldman,  et al. 1998). This has a negative impact on the campaign program against hypertension in adults since the government has not incorporated the local healthcare providers in the formulation of the policies.

Analysis of Various Methods Used to Influence Legislators

The best way of influencing the lawmakers for the Advocacy of Hypertension among adult campaign is speaking up for the patients. Once the healthcare provider has approved the implementation of the campaign, the nurses, the facilities staff as well as family members of the patients should lobby congress to enacted laws supporting the hypertension campaign.

Three Legs of Lobbying

To enable effective lobbying, the healthcare providers should understand the three legs of lobbying. The first leg is known as professional lobbying; as argued by Milstead, the American Nurses Association spends more than $1.1 million in lobbying attempts. To make the hypertension campaign a reality the nurses need to act by making use of the board memberships to seek improvement in the management and create awareness regarding hypertension among the American Adults. The grassroots lobbyist is the second leg. Milstead argues that this is made up of experts with knowledge regarding the campaign. In Hypertension campaign, the Nurses are the experts, therefore, need to speak up regarding the issues. The final leg is the role of money, to support awareness about hypertension, it is essential that people know that there will be no taxes added and it will all be free.

Anticipated Obstacles to Overcome

Several obstacles need to be overcome in the hypertension awareness campaign. Even though the law supports persons living with the condition more need to be done. Awareness creation is need regarding the issue this can be done through media as well as public service announcements, this will aid in addressing the change of lifestyle topic (Petrella, et al. 2005). The use of social media can be used to bring the issue into the limelight.

Ethical Issues to Consider

Ethical issues are always present in any healthcare settings. Therefore, hypertension awareness campaign cannot be regarded as immune to the dilemmas. If the healthcare provider is confident with the participants, then patients will gain the confidence to speak about their experiences. However, sharing these experiences should be ultimately the decision of the patients.