In a 5-7 page written assessment, define the patient, family, or population health problem that will be the focus of your capstone project. Assess the problem from perspectives on leadership, collaboration, communication, change management, and policy

Leadership, Collaboration, Communication, Change Management, and Policy Considerations

A stroke happens when the blood supply is reduced or interrupted to the brain, preventing the brain from getting enough nutrients and oxygen (Khouri et al., 2017). This can lead to the death of brain cells. A stroke is a medical emergency that needs immediate medical attention. In 2016, one in every six deaths from cardiovascular diseases was because of stroke. In the United States, someone gets a stroke every forty seconds, while someone dies of a stroke every four minutes (CDC, 2021). Annually, every 795,000 individuals have a stroke (CDC, 2021). Stroke is an expensive condition to manage, and it results in morbidity and mortality.

Blacks have twice as many chances of getting strokes compared to whites (CDC, 2021). Hence, stroke in African-American adults is the chosen healthcare problem to be assessed. The patient in this assessment is Mr. Jacobs, a 68-year-old African-American male diagnosed with hypertension ten years ago. He recently suffered a stroke four months ago, which left him paralyzed on the left side of his body. After suffering this stroke, the patient was diagnosed with the importance of adhering to the antihypertensives prescribed. The patient, however, stated that he did not receive any education on lifestyle modifications. Despite suffering from a stroke, the patient still leads a sedentary lifestyle; he is a chronic smoker who does not exercise and takes a lot of beer. These are the significant risk factors for stroke development (Khouri et al., 2017).

Evidence from Peer-Reviewed Literature

Stroke prevention aims to reduce stroke incidence by targeting specific risks or multiple risk factors (Boehme et al., 2017). These strategies can be employed at the individual, community, or population level. In some cases, as in the utilization of anti-platelets, the aim may be to utilize an intervention that will reduce the risk for ischemic stroke among individuals who have a higher risk instead of managing a specific risk factor (Boehme et al., 2017). Stroke prevention is done at three broad levels. Primordial prevention deals with a healthy lifestyle and is applied at a group level. Primordial prevention aims to reduce the population’s stroke risk factors (Boehme et al., 2017). The second level of stroke prevention is primary prevention. This aims to enhance the risk factor profiles of persons who do not have a stroke history to prevent a first cerebrovascular event (Boehme et al., 2017). The final level of prevention is secondary prevention. This is the most targeted type of prevention. This will be the focus of my assessment. This prevention is employed after a patient has suffered from a stroke to prevent reoccurrence. This will involve the use of antiplatelets and the management of hypertension. Primordial prevention includes smoke cessation, a healthy diet, enhanced physical activity, and weight control (Boehme et al., 2017).

Primary and secondary prevention focuses on specific lifestyle risk factors for stroke, while tertiary prevention of stroke involves using medications to prevent the reoccurrence of stroke events. The information by Boehme et al. (2017) is reliable since it has been published in a reputable journal, Circulation Research. This article has also been peer-reviewed, and the language is scientific. The barriers noted in ineffective stroke care include lack of resources, lack of public information, lack of training, and lack of coordination among healthcare professionals. There is a lack of resources for effective stroke care. Hence, it is critical to increase the number of stroke units, introduce care coordinators, and improve public training to extend to stroke care and prevention (Gache et al., 2014). Patients should have better knowledge of the symptoms of a stroke, which will allow them to recognize these symptoms early and help prevent stroke complications. Poor coordination among healthcare professionals is also a barrier that lowers the quality and increases the cost of stroke care. Poor coordination involves a lack of follow-up, conflicting information from healthcare professionals, and delayed information exchange (Gache et al., 2014). Care coordination is essential to improve the quality of stroke care. Nurses have a critical role in stroke prevention. Their primary role is to improve medical and behavioral risk factors (Parappilly et al., 2018). This will involve educating patients on stroke risk factors, increasing patient knowledge of stroke risk factors, and improving medication adherence, preventing stroke reoccurrences. Nurses can use the health belief model to educate patients to make healthy lifestyle choices and improve their medication adherence (Guilford et al., 2017). This can be important in stroke prevention. The patients can take charge of their health, enhancing heal