C.m. has come to the health center for a follow up visit for hypertension. While the
practitioner is writing in the chart, c.m. States ‘ my brother had a stroke yesterday” . The
practitioner responds, I’m sorry to hear that. Your blood pressure is being controlled by
the medication. I’ll need to see you again in 6 months.
- Discuss the developmental age, socioeconomic, and cross cultural considerations that
should be considered during the interview. - Name the appropriate and inappropriate behavior used by the interviewer and discuss
alternatives to any inappropriate behavior identified. - Describe how they would ” feel” if they were the interviewee. 4. List the factors that
affect blood pressure.
Hypertension
Cross cultural, socioeconomic, and developmental age
During the interview, there are several factors that should be put into consideration. The
practitioner should consider the patient’s age since its risk and vulnerability increases with age.
Age is a key factor considering the patient’s case is being controlled by the drugs. In this case,
there should be a keen assessment since the disease increases in stages. A person aged 30 years
may have elevated readings that may return to normal. As age increases, the readings increase as
well. Hypertension that develops before 50 years is risky since the chances of stroke and heart
attack are increased greatly. Careful treatment is necessary so as to avoid reducing the life
expectancy (Wolf-Maier et al., 2004).
The practitioner should also consider the patient’s socioeconomic status. Recent findings
indicate that socioeconomic factors such as occupation and education are linked to hypertension.
National, local, and individual conditions as well as rural or urban dwelling are associated with
hypertension. This is attributable to the fact that depending of a patient’s socioeconomic status,
he may either possess or lack the necessary tools for fighting hypertension (Wolf-Maier et al.,
2004).These include awareness in regard to control and prevention of the disease, medical
treatment adherence, and better accessibility to these treatments. In addition, there may be higher
job strain and low birth weight among groups with lower socioeconomic status, which
contributes to the development and progression of the disease (Wolf-Maier et al., 2004).
Another factor that is worth considering in the patient is the cross cultural factors.
Usually, hypertension varies cross-culturally. Cross-culturally, there are variations between
castes and tribes. Developing countries are also more prone to the disease. Modernization or
acculturation may increase the risk of high blood pressure. The prevalence of the disease is low
among the ancient population groups (Wolf-Maier et al., 2004). The cross-cultural differences in
hypertension are as a result of multiple factors. Economic modernization is associated with
psychosocial stress because of cultural disruption, and traditional cultural patterns and
cooperative relationships’ disruption, which results to high blood pressure. Body weight and low
salt consumption are other cross-cultural variations that matter.
Inappropriate and appropriate behavior
In my view, the only appropriate behavior that the practitioner practiced is apologizing to
the patient after hearing the bad news about the brother. However, the practitioner was not
sympathetic enough and did not indicate an interest of finding out whether there was a link
between the stroke and the patient’s high blood pressure (Wolf-Maier et al., 2004).
At first, the client should have greeted the patient and enquired about how he was doing.
the fact that the practitioner says the blood pressure is under control because of the medication is
HYPERTENSION 2
not sufficient since there should be a consideration of proper diet and physical activity. The
practitioner should have discussed these with the patient. Finally, six months is a long period to
assign a follow in a patient suffering from high blood pressure. This is attributable to the fact that
there are other conditions such as stroke and coronary disease that develop in such patients.
Therefore, there is a need for constant checkups (Wolf-Maier et al., 2004).
The interviewee
If the practitioner was the interviewee, he would also not have felt good from the way he
was treated. It was important to show empathy and concern after being informed about the
stroke.
Factors that affect blood pressure
Some of the factors that have an influence on blood pressure are exercise, nutrition,
alcohol, stress, and smoking (Wolf-Maier et al., 2004).
HYPERTENSION 3
Reference
Wolf-Maier, K., Cooper, R. S., Kramer, H., Banegas, J. R., Giampaoli, S., Joffres, M. R. &
Thamm, M. (2004). Hypertension treatment and control in five European countries,
Canada, and the United States. Hypertension, 43(1), 10-17.