Obesity Management Strategies for Effective Patient Outcomes: A Nursing Concern

Practice-related issue or concern: Nursing intervention in obesity management

Task:

Please read the assignment guidelines and rubric. Provide answers to the following: 

1) Identify and describe one practice-related issue or concern.  You may choose to build on the practice issue you identified in NR500NP/NR501NP. Provide support for the issue from scholarly nursing sources current within the last 5 years.

Nursing professionals are required to integrate their experience with the current evidence while determining clinical practices, which is commonly known as an evidence-based practice. Such practices aim towards improving the health outcomes and safety of the patients. The nursing practice related concern that would be discussed in the following sections would be obesity management under the window of preventative health care measures. Nurses play a crucial role in patient education and providing guiding information to the patients and their family members, acting as personalized counsellors to help the patients manage their obese condition effectively (Harris & Castle, 2019).

One of the major health concerns amongst the American population is obesity. According to National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey – NHANES (2019), around 40% of the adult population in the USA have obesity, which accounts to be the highest rates ever recorded by NHANES (American Medical Association, 2020). Nurses play a critical role in obesity management of the affected population, with the help of patient advocacy and offering strategies for increasing physical activity, decreasing calorie intake, nutritional advice and weight management programs (Harris & Castle, 2019).

2) Explain why the issue/concern is important to nurse practitioner practice and the issue’s impact on health outcomes.  Provide support for the importance of the issue from scholarly nursing sources current within the last 5 years.

In obesity management, the health care professionals aim in guiding the patient towards three primary objectives, which includes a reduction in the weigh, prevention of weight gain recurrence and maintenance of nutrition along with healthy diet. Nursing professionals also have expanded roles, where they aid in coordinating care from a multidisciplinary team, for effective management of patient’s clinical condition (Braga et al., 2017). Obesity management is highly influenced by the lifestyle of the patient, and it is important that the patients and family members are made aware of the importance of regular exercise along with healthy diet to help the client reduce weight and lead a healthy lifestyle (Braga et al., 2017). Behavior modification, thus, is critical in obesity management.

Provision of effective obesity management strategies by the nursing workforce has a crucial impact on preventing adverse health outcomes. The clinical condition of being obese diminishes every health aspect, affecting physical as well as mental health of the individual. Physical health complications such as increased blood pressure, increased risk of heart failure or heart attack, kidney failure, stroke, dental distress, headache, insulin resistance, hyperglycemia and respiratory distress are associated with obesity (Dankel, Loenneke & Loprinzi, 2017). Psychological consequences associated with obesity include reduced self-esteem, increased anxiety and depression (Cadenas-Sanchez et al., 2016). This can further lead the patient towards disordered eating, and avoidance of medical care & physical activity, which furthers increased the risk of health deterioration. The list of co-morbidities of obesity is so extensive that it can be stated that all aspects of health are adversely affected by it. Hence, nurse practitioners have to ensure adequate health promotion and advocacy for the management of this condition to prevent the onset of chronic conditions in the patient.
3) Define each element of your PICOT question in one or two sentences.

P-Population and problem (What is the nursing practice concern or problem and whom does it affect?)

The nursing intervention on obesity management strategies would aim towards the adult population aged 40 and 59 years.

I–Intervention (What evidence-based solution for the problem would you like to apply?)

The preferred evidence-based strategy is increasing in physical activity level and regular exercise. The concerned patient population would be provided education on the recommended strategies by the nursing practitioners.

C–Comparison (What is another solution for the problem? Note that this is typically the current practice, no intervention at all, or alternative solutions.)

The current practice for obesity management is highly inclined towards dietary interventions and includes a calorie-restricted diet for weight reduction and management.

O–Outcome (Very specifically, how will you know that the intervention worked? How you will measure the outcome?)

The efficacy of the intervention could be adjudged with the reduction in BMI (Body Mass Index) levels of the patient population. BMI can be calculated by taking anthropometric measurements of height and weight of each individual.
 
T–Timeframe (Timeframe involved for the EBP initiative/target date of completion.)

The target date of intervention completion is one year, post which the outcome will be measured.

Construct your PICOT question in the standard PICOT question format (narrative) and define each letter separately, such as: 

P = Adults with obesity aged between 40 and 59 years.
I = Regular Exercise
C = Dietary restriction with lower calorie intake
O = Reduced BMI index level
T = One year