NURS FPX 4905 Assessment 4
[Student Name]
Capella University
[Prof. Name]
August 2025
NURS FPX 4905 Assessment 4: Improving Medication Adherence Among Older Adults with Hypertension
The physiological alterations in old age and comorbid conditions make older adults prone to hypertension that is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in most parts of the world. Although the available anti-hypertensive medications will be good solution to hypertension, the problem of improving medication adherence in older adults in order to confound the management of blood pressure to a desirable low level and expose the older generation to preventable heart diseases such as heart failure, stroke, and kidney diseases, despite the fact that the currently available anti-hypertensive medications have potential remedy to hypertension. The medication adherence problem among this group of patients is an area that should receive some consideration to help in the enhancement of patient safety, delivery of high-quality care, and cost reduction in healthcare. In that way, NURS FPX 4905 Assessment 4, capstone project will be devoted to the use of evidence-based intervention and the notion of interprofessional collaboration to improve the medication adherence of the older adult hypertension population, leading to improved health outcomes and the organizational and country national healthcare achievement.
Leading a Practice Change to Improve Medication Adherence
The leadership role in the nursing practice cannot be viewed as marginal, and so can be considered within the context of the region at large in terms of the quality improvement initiatives (Yastaas et al., 2023). The principles of transformational leadership have enabled me as a baccalaureate-trained nurse to impart a sense of responsibility, cross-connection among all stakeholders and promote evidence-based
practice in my practice environment. To create patient-centered intervention I might conduct a multidisciplinary meeting, I could invite to the table the doctors, pharmacists and social workers in interdisciplinary planning as soon as I had the clear picture of how medication adherence should be improved. The training sessions during which the nursing staff was reminded of the importance of motivational interviewing and methods of teaching to use when developing patient teaching programs were listed under the category of effective leadership behavior identified during NURS FPX 4905 Assessment 4. Nurses should be motivated to enhance self-efficacy and medication adherence of their patients using a suitable method such as motivational interviewing. I also assisted in the proposal of the technology options, employing telemedicine follow-ups and computerized reminders, in the work with discharged patients that had already left the hospital.
Applying Quality and Safety Principles
The values of nursing practice that are of the utmost importance across the NURS FPX 4905 Assessment 4 in accordance with the organization such as the Institute of Medicine and the Quality and Safety Education of Nurses (QSEN) encompass patient safety and quality care. It can lead to the inability to deal with hypertension that might have severe side effects and readmission (Huang et al., 2023). I could mitigate these risks by determining the barriers, and evaluating the possible solutions according to the principles of quality improvement i.e., PDSA cycles and root cause analysis. The root cause study identified the following as the primary causes, the following to be the primary causes, complicated drug schedules, poor health literacy
and noncompliance with B. This led to lean medical procedures and in certain cases we liaised with other pharmacists to write drug reconciliation and deprescribing. Non adherent to medication was also piloted. To ensure that the number of missed doses is minimized to a significant degree, we may provide them with individual medication schedules and medicine dispensing boxes. The interventions were to be conducted based on precautionary measures and we observed the patients to observe the possibilities of drug interactions or drug effects.
Communicating and Collaborating with the Interprofessional Team
An effective collaboration between the professionals will enable more coordination of care, fewer drug-error, and patient compliance (Abdalla et al., 2023). I provided a schedule of communication with the healthcare team on a weekly basis during the weekly huddles and electronic health record (EHR) check-ups. Social workers and I collaborated to overcome socioeconomic challenges like money and transportation which deprives the patients of the chance to consume their drugs as prescribed and pharmacists of the chance to counsel the patients on medication. This affiliation is in line with the ANA Code of Ethics that assigns the duties of nurses in order to create a positive working environment. I also engaged in work with patients and their families through shared decision making that is a requisite of patient empowerment as it adhere to medication maintenance. The interdisciplinary team might also facilitate them to the community services by linking them to the home health agencies and other elderly centers in the neighborhood so that they can support them after being released in the hospital.
Every action taken in NURS FPX 4905 Assessment 4 was in the parameters of the organization and professional standards of nursing. The Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals, in particular, the pharmaceutical safety ones, and the suggestions of the American Heart Association to treat hypertension with, can be achieved with such treatments. The patient education resources that I have followed are culturally and health-suited since they are associated with the health literacy principle established by the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Furthermore, as I have been reflecting on the issue of patient safety through the lens of the individual agency, the program is associated with the ethical codes of beneficence and autonomy. Since the EHR records all of the discussions and the interactions I have had with the patients, I must have met the data privacy and continuity of treatment standards that are typical of the institution. This adherence to evidence-based practice, observation of the rules, and good ethics demonstrate the quality of professional responsibility related to nursing practice developed in NURS FPX 4905 Assessment 4.
Improving Population Health and Addressing Health Disparities
Reduction of modifiable risk factors (i.e., medication non-adherence) in a population of susceptible individuals will constitute the short-term population health outcome of this project. According to Horvat et al. (2024), older patients tend to have to deal with other issues related to cognitive impairment and polypharmacy, making their adherence-related issues more complicated. The interventions will uphold social determinants of health, foster equity, and assist patients to adhere to medication in programs that concentrate on the appropriateness of interventions in the patient. In
addition, outreach was used to target the less fortunate community to make them unable to access care services. We have minimized the price considerations by organizing an encounter with the area drugstores which provide home delivery and inexpensive generics. This follows the aims of the Healthy People 2030 that facilitate elimination of health inequities and advocacy of health equity. According to the initial statistics, which were received during our pilot program, the effect on the population, on the whole, was beneficial since the blood pressure rate by up to 25 percent and compliance rate, by up to 25 percent, have improved.
Evaluating the Project Outcomes and Sustaining Change
The change of practice should be considered regularly to become efficient and durable (Abdalla et al., 2023). We observed the compliance patterns of self-reporting patients, medication intake and up to three months after visiting the blood pressure facility. Recommendations made by the patient and staff were considered to contribute to the constant variation of practices of interventions. In fact, NURS FPX 4905 Assessment 4, patients stated that they were more comfortable with electronic reminders than paper calendars. This is the reason why we wanted to locate the means of integrating the mobile health in the plan. To help further implementation of the plan, I volunteered to monitor compliance by ensuring that a chance was followed and regular nursing evaluation provided and reminder messages in the EHR workflow.
I also participated in the quality improvement team in order to make sure that medication adherence is a key performance indicator of hypertension care in our
facility. These advantages will be strengthened through periodic training of the staff and consumer feedback mechanisms in an attempt to overcome emergent problems.
Conclusion
In addition to the aspect of appearance, the nonadherence to medication is a problem that falls outside our practice of management and should be addressed in a patient-centered and evidence-based manner. The problem contained in the frames of the present capstone project shows how nurses are able to affect patient outcomes to a significant extent when it is enabled by proper leadership, understandability, adherence to the standards of quality and safety, and dedication to professional values. The project will improve the living standards of the elderly population; minimize hospitalization and high blood pressure treatment among the elderly population since the primary issues that affected the population of the elderly would be solved. They ought to be long-term in the sense that the strains to evaluate performance and the ongoing improvement will direct them toward long-term performance. Nurses play a significant role as change agents and leaders in the improvement of population health and healthcare provision as it will be revealed in the application of the highlighted project in NURS FPX 4905 Assessment 4.
References
Abdalla, M., Bolen, D., Brettler, J., Egan, M., Ferdinand, C., Ford, D., Lackland, T., Wall, K., & Shimbo, D. (2023). Implementation strategies to improve blood pressure control in the United States: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association and American Medical Association. Hypertension, 80(10), e143–e157. https://doi.org/10.1161/HYP.0000000000000232
Horvat, M., Eržen, I., & Vrbnjak, D. (2024). Barriers and facilitators to medication adherence among the vulnerable elderly: A focus group study. Healthcare, 12(17), 1723. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12171723
Huang, X., Xu, N., Wang, Y., Sun, Y., & Guo, A. (2023). The effects of motivational interviewing on hypertension management: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Patient Education and Counseling, 112, 107760. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2023.107760
Ystaas, L. M. K., Nikitara, M., Ghobrial, S., Latzourakis, E., Polychronis, G., & Constantinou, C. S. (2023). The impact of transformational leadership in the nursing work environment and patients’ outcomes: A systematic review. Nursing Reports, 13(3), 1271–1290. https://doi.org/10.3390/nursrep13030108
