A Systematic Review of the Hill-Bone Compliance to Blood Pressure Therapy Scale.

Background: Poor medication adherence hampers hypertension control and increases the risk of adverse health outcomes. Medication adherence can be measured with direct and indirect methods. The Hill-Bone Compliance to High Blood Pressure Therapy (HBCHBPT) Scale, one of the most popular adherence measures, indirectly assesses adherence to hypertension therapy in three behavioral domains: appointment keeping, diet and medication adherence.

Burden and Unmet Needs with Portable Oxygen in Patients on Long-Term Oxygen Therapy.

Over 1.5 million Americans receive long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) for the treatment of chronic hypoxemia to optimize functional status and quality of life. However, current portable oxygen equipment, including portable gas tanks (GTs), portable liquid tanks (LTs), and portable oxygen concentrators (POCs), each have limitations that can hinder patient mobility and daily activities.

A review of advanced practice nursing in the United States, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), China.

This paper provides an overview of Advanced Practice Nursing (APN) in the USA, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong. It is based upon documents presented to the China Medical Board (CMB) China Nursing Network (CNN) as background for discussions held by the CNN in Shanghai. It discusses the APN role in these countries and regions according to topics identified by the CNN.

Strategic directions and actions for advanced practice nursing in China.

There is a need and opportunity for China to develop education and practice innovations given that advance practice nurses (APNs) improve health care and outcomes. The China Medical Board (CMB) China Nursing Network (CCNN) began planning for an Advanced Nursing Practice Program for education and career development that will facilitate CCNN's contributions to meeting national nursing policy priorities. This paper presents the discussion, recommendations and action plans developed at the inaugural planning meeting on June 26, 2015 at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Expanding the Role of Nurses to Improve Hypertension Care and Control Globally.

The role of the nurse in improving hypertension control has expanded over the past 50 years, complementing and supplementing that of the physician. Nurses' involvement began with measuring and monitoring blood pressure (BP) and patient education and has expanded to become one of the most effective strategies to improve BP control. Today the roles of nurses and nurse practitioners (NPs) in hypertension management involve all aspects of care, including (1) detection, referral, and follow up; (2) diagnostics and medication management; (3) patient education, counseling, and skill building; (4) coordination of care; (5) clinic or office management; (6) population health management; and (7) performance measurement and quality improvement.

Cardiac Rehabilitation: Unraveling the Complexity of Referral and Current Models of Delivery.

Background: Evidence-based guidelines recommend strategies for reducing risk factors for secondary prevention of acute coronary syndromes, yet referral to and completion of programs to deliver this advice are poor.

Purpose: In this article we describe the complexity of factors that influence referral and delivery of evidence-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs through an Australian context and provide direction for solutions for clinicians and policy makers to consider. The Ecological Approach is used as a framework to synthesize evidence.

'Global health' and 'global nursing': proposed definitions from The Global Advisory Panel on the Future of Nursing.

Aims: To propose definitions of global health and global nursing that reflect the new paradigm that integrates domestic and international health.

Background: Increased globalization has led to expanded awareness of the importance of global health and global nursing among students and faculty in the health professions and among policymakers and practitioners.

Design: Discussion paper that includes a discussion and review of the literature related to global health and global nursing.

Sex Differences in Cardiovascular Disease Risk of Ghanaian- and Nigerian-Born West African Immigrants in the United States: The Afro-Cardiac Study.

Background: The number of African immigrants in the United States grew 40-fold between 1960 and 2007, from 35 355 to 1.4 million, with a large majority from West Africa. This study sought to examine the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and global CVD risk and to identify independent predictors of increased CVD risk among West African immigrants in the United States.

Facilitating or getting in the way? The effect of clinicians' knowledge, values and beliefs on referral and participation.

Background: Despite the compelling evidence of the benefits of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) on risk factor modification, quality of life and mortality reduction, a significant proportion of eligible patients are not referred or do not participate. Factors influencing CR referral and participation are complex and are likely patient, referral system and clinician-related. Little is known about clinician-related factors, which include attitudes, values and beliefs towards CR, or how these factors affect patient referral and attendance.

Medication non-adherence as a critical factor in the management of presumed resistant hypertension: a narrative review.

Aims: Medication non-adherence is a crucial behavioural risk factor in hypertension management. Forty-three to 65.5% of patients with presumed resistant hypertension are non-adherent.

Antihypertensive medication nonadherence in black men: direct and mediating effects of depressive symptoms, psychosocial stressors, and substance use.

Black men suffer disproportionately from hypertension. Antihypertensive medication nonadherence is a major contributor to poor blood pressure control, yet few studies consider how psychosocial functioning may impact black men's medication adherence. The authors examined the direct and mediating pathways between depressive symptoms, psychosocial stressors, and substance use on antihypertensive medication nonadherence in 196 black men enrolled in a clinical trial to improve hypertension care and control.

An ecological perspective on medication adherence.

Adherence to a prescribed medication regimen is influenced not only by characteristics of the individual patient, but also by factors within the patient's environment, or so-called system level factors. Until now, however, health care system factors have received relatively little attention in explaining medication nonadherence. Ecological models might serve as a framework to help explain the influence of health care system factors on patient behavior (e.

International doctoral education partnership: the first full-time doctoral program for nurses in china.

In July 2008, five nurses graduated from the first full-time doctoral program for nurses in China at Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) in Beijing. The purpose of this article is to describe the doctoral program partnership between the Schools of Nursing at PUMC and Johns Hopkins University (Hopkins) in the United States that led to this historic event. The planning, implementation, evaluation, and early outcomes of the program are described to provide a model for rapidly increasing capacity for doctoral education in nursing in countries without sufficient or any doctoral education in nursing.

Community Outreach and Cardiovascular Health (COACH) Trial: a randomized, controlled trial of nurse practitioner/community health worker cardiovascular disease risk reduction in urban community health centers.

Background: Despite well-publicized guidelines on the appropriate management of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, the implementation of risk-reducing practices remains poor. This report describes the results of a randomized, controlled clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of a comprehensive program of cardiovascular disease risk reduction delivered by nurse practitioner /community health worker (NP/CHW) teams versus enhanced usual care (EUC) to improve lipids, blood pressure, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and patient perceptions of the quality of their chronic illness care in patients in urban community health centers.

Methods And Results: A total of 525 patients with documented cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, or hypertension and levels of LDL cholesterol, blood pressure, or HbA1c that exceeded goals established by national guidelines were randomly assigned to NP/CHW (n=261) or EUC (n=264) groups.

Teletransmitted monitoring of blood pressure and bilingual nurse counseling-sustained improvements in blood pressure control during 12 months in hypertensive Korean Americans.

This paper reports the results of a clinical investigation to determine the sustainability of intervention effects to lower blood pressure (BP) that were obtained through a short-term education via home telemonitoring of BP and regular counseling by bilingual nurses during 1 year. A total of 359 middle-aged (40-64 years) Korean immigrants completed a 15-month intervention that consisted of 6-week behavioral education followed by home telemonitoring of BP and bilingual nurse telephone counseling for 12 months. The final analysis revealed a sharp increase in BP control rates sustained for more than 12 months.

Effect of problem-solving-based diabetes self-management training on diabetes control in a low income patient sample.

Background: Lower socioeconomic status is associated with excess disease burden from diabetes. Diabetes self-management support interventions are needed that are effective in engaging lower income patients, addressing competing life priorities and barriers to self-care, and facilitating behavior change.

Objective: To pilot test feasibility, acceptability, and effect on disease control of a problem-based diabetes self-management training adapted for low literacy and accessibility.

Adherence and persistence with taking medication to control high blood pressure.

Nonadherence and poor or no persistence with taking antihypertensive medications results in uncontrolled high blood pressure, poor clinical outcomes and preventable health care costs. Factors associated with nonadherence are multilevel and relate not only to the patient, but also to the provider, health care system, health care organization, and community. National guideline committees have called for more aggressive approaches to implement strategies known to improve adherence and technologies known to enable changes at the systems level including improved communication among providers and patients.

COACH trial: a randomized controlled trial of nurse practitioner/community health worker cardiovascular disease risk reduction in urban community health centers: rationale and design.

Background: Despite well-publicized guidelines on the appropriate management of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes, implementation of risk-reducing practices remains poor. This paper describes the rationale and design of a randomized controlled clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of a comprehensive program of CVD risk reduction delivered by nurse practitioner (NP)/community health worker (CHW) teams versus enhanced usual care in improving the proportion of patients in urban community health centers who achieve goal levels recommended by national guidelines for lipids, blood pressure, HbA1c and prescription of appropriate medications.

Methods: The COACH (Community Outreach and Cardiovascular Health) trial is a randomized controlled trial in which patients at federally-qualified community health centers were randomly assigned to one of two groups: comprehensive intensive management of CVD risk factors for one year by a NP/CHW team or an enhanced usual care control group.

ASH position paper: Adherence and persistence with taking medication to control high blood pressure.

Nonadherence and poor or no persistence in taking antihypertensive medications results in uncontrolled high blood pressure, poor clinical outcomes, and preventable health care costs. Factors associated with nonadherence are multilevel and relate not only to the patient, but also to the provider, health care system, health care organization, and community. National guideline committees have called for more aggressive approaches to implement strategies known to improve adherence and technologies known to enable changes at the systems level, including improved communication among providers and patients.