BSN Students to Combat Obesity & Hypertension in Cleveland Schools
Posted 10/1/10
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Marilyn Lotas, PhD, RN |
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and BSN Program Director Marilyn Lotas has secured a grant from the Prentiss Foundation that will enable third-year nursing students to implement blood pressure screenings and obesity-reducing interventions over the next five years at a demonstration school in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.
"We've been reporting high rates of obesity and elevated blood pressure for many years," Dr. Lotas says. "What has been missing is effective intervention. This new Prentiss grant will help us take our students through the whole spectrum of tackling a health issue from defining it, creating a program, and then evaluating its strengths and weaknesses."
FPB students have been on the forefront of the obesity and high blood pressure issues. Since the nursing students started taking blood pressures in the Cleveland schools in 2002, the numbers have remained elevated.
The additional support from the Prentiss Foundation now puts the entire project in the hands of the nursing students. Supported by faculty, they will come up with a screening program and interventions that the Cleveland schools can afford.
Source: Case Western Reserve University
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