Vera Tarkova: Bringing hypertension education and support to the community
Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, which are the number one killer in the Russian Federation. Nurse leader Vera Tarkova, Head Nurse of the Borovskaya branch of Tyumen Regional Hospital No. 19 in the Russian Federation, recognized that many of the patients she saw developing disabilities or dying from cardiovascular diseases could have had better outcomes – with the right support and knowledge.
Vera thought to herself, “Our role is to empower patients, to provide them with good knowledge and skills to take good care of themselves.” With this in mind, the nursing team she led decided to enrol as volunteers for a project known as Stop Hypertension. The regional Tyumen Nurses Association developed the project with the aim of providing health education about hypertension control.
After her first volunteer session, Vera was so convinced of the importance of the project that she and her fellow nurses committed to bringing information sessions to people throughout the area they serve. In the end, the project exceeded all of their expectations.
A team of 12 nurses delivered sessions for 1420 people, including 215 teenagers. They detected 70 people with high blood pressure, including 42 who had been previously diagnosed with hypertension but were not following a treatment plan. All information on these identified cases of hypertension was submitted to outpatient clinics and district doctors. The nurses continue to support these patients and help them to adhere to their treatments and prescribed therapies.
The project also yielded tangible results at the hospital, where the number of people diagnosed with hypertension for the first time increased by 8%. Meanwhile, the number of requests for ambulances due to high blood pressure and hypertension decreased by 11%.
“As nurses, we provide help and care daily. But when you do something above the ordinary function, when you work in direct communication with patients, you receive back much more than you give,” says Vera. According to her, being a volunteer has also helped to improve her professional and managerial skills.
“If I convince at least one person a day to follow a healthy lifestyle, I will not waste that day but will help somebody to save their health and possibly even their life.”
The photo story below illustrates Vera’s volunteer work with the Stop Hypertension project.