ANA Partners in Healthy Blood Pressure Campaign

**NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN** · May 6, 2004

5/3/04

on april 27, ana joined novartis pharmaceuticals corp., the american society of hypertension, the department of health & human services and the centers for disease control & prevention in launching a national initiative to address the growing crisis of uncontrolled high blood pressure.

in her remarks, ana president barbara a. blakeney, ms, aprn,bc, anp, underscored the important role that nurses play in informing, educating and motivating patients to set, achieve and maintain a healthy blood pressure goal and pledged the association's commitment to the goals of the new initiative.

today, one in every four adults - that's 60 million individuals-has high blood pressure and the vast majority -70 percent -does not have it under control.

uncontrolled high blood pressure has significant consequences including the potential for long-term damage, such as heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, blindness and the ongoing damage to blood vessels that lead to major organs in the body. the risk of heart attack or stroke doubles for every 20 points the top blood pressure number is above 115 and every 10 points the bottom number is above 75.

with the support of an educational grant from novartis, ana will develop a national program to educate registered nurses and the public as part of "take action for healthy blood pressure" campaign.

ana will launch this program at its annual convention in minneapolis, june 26-29, where it will offer a continuing education (ce) session on controlling high blood pressure. following the convention, the educational materials will be available online and in other formats. these materials will be shared with constituent member organizations (cmas) and cmas will be encouraged to offer ce on this topic.

in addition, ana will work with cmas to help inform and motivate the public to address this important health issue by conducting free blood pressure screenings in 10 major cities and by developing an educational brochure. for more information on the "take action for a healthy blood pressure" initiative go to: www.pharma.us.novartis.com/newsroom/pressreleases/releasedetail.jsp?prid=1183