Running Head: CANFIELD FAIR 1

Canfield Fair

Week 3

Madison Stryffeler

Youngstown State University

CANFIELD FAIR

Canfield Fair

On Saturday evening, I got the pleasure of taking blood pressures at the Canfield fair. I

got a lot of experience and also met a variety of people. My first encounter was with my friend’s

boyfriend. He is a 22-year-old thin, male who is active and eats healthy but had a blood pressure

of 140/110. He stated that high blood pressure runs in his family, and that could be the reason for

his reading. My next encounter was with a man who told me he was put into the hospital last

year for his systolic blood pressure being over 200. He was already prescribed blood pressure

medicine but began to self-medicate, not talking it every day, and ended up in the hospital.

Lastly, I got to experience taking blood pressure on children. I got to use the pediatric cuff and

also look at a scale of their normal ranges.

While at the canfield fair I was able to apply educational theory, principles and strategies

when teaching individuals and families at health fairs, health screenings and home care. While at

the fair I taught patients ways to better control their blood pressure. When individuals asked me

ways to lower their blood pressure I told them to eat less sodium, exercise, decrease stress levels

and stop smoking. When the man had told me he began to self-medicate with his medicine, I

made sure to tell him that is not safe and to always contact his physician. I also noticed when I

asked people what their blood pressure was normally, a lot of them were unaware. The majority

of people who came to me did not go to the doctor to have it checked. This was alarming, so I

made sure to tell them to have it regularly checked and visit with their physician for a routine

physical.

While at the fair I also got to see the community as a setting for all levels of health care

delivery from clinical community experience. As we saw, a lot of individuals do not visit a

doctor to get a routine physical. However, by putting on events such as a blood pressure
CANFIELD FAIR

screening, it encourages more people to check their health. We typically think of health care as

hospital and doctors’ offices but it is so much more than that. By providing free screenings in the

community, it allows more people the opportunity to be checked and possibly prevent a disease.

By attending this clinical experience, I learned a variety of things. First of all, I became

extremely confident in my blood pressure skills. Next, I got to see how genetics and habits can

affect blood pressure. I also learned that things that may seem simple to me as a nurse, patients

may not know. An example of this could be a patient beginning to take his medication when he

feels like it and not taking it as prescribed. Lastly, I learned that children have different normal

blood pressures than adults. Depending on the age of the child, there are different normal ranges.

During our clinical experience, we got to get children’s blood pressures and see where they fall

for their age. Overall, the Canfield fair was an amazing learning experience.