Training manual | Approximately 2 – 3 h of pre-reading (PRE-WORK) | ||
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Manual of compulsory pre-reading based on National Heart Foundation of Australia materials [19, 20], covering the principle concepts relating to: | |||
• Hypertension (background overview): definition, blood pressure and health (complications), epidemiology, regulation of blood pressure (physiology) | |||
• Management of hypertension: diagnosis and classification of hypertension, measuring blood pressure, steps to measure blood pressure accurately (including common errors in blood pressure measurement) | |||
• Absolute cardiovascular risk: assessing absolute cardiovascular risk in hypertension management, Australian cardiovascular risk charts | |||
• Treatment of hypertension: when to intervene in patients with confirmed hypertension | |||
• Lifestyle modification: regular physical activity, smoking cessation, dietary modification, weight reduction, limiting alcohol | |||
• Drug treatment: general principles, antihypertensive drug classes, selecting an antihypertensive agent, combination therapy, achieving target blood pressure, monitoring response to drug treatment | |||
• Treatment considerations in patients with other cardiovascular conditions | |||
• Hypertension in pregnancy | |||
• Managing inadequate response to treatment | |||
• Long-term management | |||
Training workshop | Full day (including breaks) | ||
Topic | Learning mode | Duration | |
Introduction | Brief lecture | 15 min | |
Principles of BP measurement (blood pressure targets, approaches to measurement, salient points in measurement) | Brief lecture, practical workshop | 30 min | |
Practical BP measurement (practical skills development in BP measurement using real patients and BP device; assessment of skills in BP measurement) | Practice workshop; competency assessment | 90 min | |
Hypertension management (including optimizing antihypertensive therapy, co-morbidities and considerations for therapy, therapeutic recommendations in practice) | Lecture | 45 min | |
Medication adherence assessment and intervention (barriers to therapy, how to assess and address adherence, Health Collaboration Model [15]), inter-professional collaboration) | Brief lecture | 30 min | |
Case scenarios (four hypothetical practice cases which involved identifying individual patient treatment needs, optimal therapy and potential solutions (therapeutic recommendations), assessment of complex patients, supporting patients with multiple co-morbidities) | Workshop, group discussion | 30 min | |
Case assessment (hypothetical cases scenarios to practice application of above content) | Written assessment | 30 min | |
Process and documentation for the delivery of the intervention | Workshop | 30 min |