Students will be able to demonstrate competencies in knowledge, skills, and attitudes of an effective clinician in evaluating and caring for patients with hypertension in the primary care setting.

Medical Knowledge

The students will:

1. Define the nationally accepted guidelines for diagnosing and staging the severity of hypertension.
2. Define pre-hypertension, essential hypertension, and identifiable etiologies of secondary hypertension.
3. Describe elements of lifestyle modification in both healthy, pre-hypertensive, and hypertensive patients.
4. Describe basic management principles of patients with essential hypertension.
5. Define special considerations in hypertensive management in diabetics, minorities, and patients with chronic kidney problems.
6. Define resistant hypertension.

Patient Care

The students will:

1. Name proper elements of the hypertensive patient history to identify lifestyle, other cardiovascular risk factors, and assess concomitant disorders that affects prognosis and guides treatment.
2. Recognize proper techniques in blood pressure taking techniques in the office setting.
3. List appropriate elements of a comprehensive physical examination in hypertensive patients.
4. List recommended laboratory studies to be ordered on uncomplicated hypertensive patients on initial and subsequent visits.
5. Formulate management plans for the longitudinal care of patients with hypertension.
6. Develop prevention plans, including health education and behavioral change strategies, for hypertensive patients, following accepted national clinical practice guidelines (Seventh and Eighth Reports of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure).

Interpersonal and Communication Skills

The student will:

1. Name relevant psychosocial and cultural issues that impact on care.
2. Reflect on the importance of providing culturally sensitive and responsive education, counseling, and care to patients and their families.
3. Demonstrate awareness of improved patient care outcomes through effective communication with all members of the primary care team such as nutritionists, pharmacists, social workers, nurses, and community advocates.

Practice Based Learning

The student will:

1. Use information technology to access medical information and support self-education and clinical decision making.
2. Use information technology to access patient and family education resources on hypertension.

Professionalism

The student will:

1. Demonstrate professionalism by completing this web module during the assigned period.

Systems Based Practice

The student will:

1. Demonstrate the ability to know which cases can be managed by the primary care physician and which should be referred for co-management with a specialist.
2. Develop awareness of practicing cost-effective health care and resource allocation that does not compromise quality of care.
3. Consider issues related to health care access.
4. Demonstrate awareness of improved patient care outcomes through effective communication with other health care professionals, partnerships through community resources, and government agencies.

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Introduction to Hypertension, the JNC 7 & the JNC 8 >>