Nursing at school

guiding and encouraging youth participation in self-care for hypertension control

Abstract

Statistical data from DATASUS, SIM and IBGE show that there has been an increase in mortality rate in Brazil associated with cardiovascular diseases. Hypertension, a chronic disease which is considered a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, vascular brain diseases and renal diseases, is also high among the Brazilian population and its treatment incur increasing costs to the welfare state. In order to encourage youth participation to control the disease, the “Nursing” Subproject for the Initiation Program to Teaching of the Nursing Course felt the need to educate adolescents to look after themselves and to cooperate in caring for hypertensive individuals. Thus, the nursing student provided 6th grade elementary school students with education on the mechanism of circulation, hypertension, and emphasized the measures to control the disease. The experience turned out to be extremely satisfactory as evidenced by the participation and enthusiasm on the part of students. Besides meeting its goal regarding extension, the approach benefitted the school, the nursing student, scholarship holders, the Nursing Course and the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU) as it enriched university production and contributed to the quality of life.