Million Hearts Community Outreach and Engagement

Background: Million Hearts® is a national initiative launched by the Department of Health and Human Services in September 2011 to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes in a 5 year time frame. Aims: The Million Hearts^® initiative aims to increase awareness about heart disease prevention and empower patients to take control of their heart health. The goals of this session are to provide examples for nursing and interprofessional colleges of Million Hearts outreach and engagement opportunities and to discuss ways to provide continuity of care and community follow-up after screenings. Methods: This University is currently participating in several Million Hearts community outreach activities include engaging local congregations, participation in community health fairs and large scale screening events, and the Wellness On Wheels (WOW) Tour. WOW is a three city bus tour conducted by an interprofessional team of students and faculty focused on doing Million Hearts screenings and education. This University's College of Nursing also is partnering with Extension to bring Million Hearts screenings and educational classes to rural areas. Extension, in collaboration with the College of Nursing, has developed a curriculum centered around the “ABCSs” that will provide further information on how to reduce cardiovascular modifiable risk factors and help people make healthy behavior changes.  The curriculum centers around hands-on education such as food preparation and sample tastings, how to monitor blood pressure, and stress reduction methods. Findings: There  are endless possibilties to advancing Million Hearts^® through community engagement and screenings that are beneficial and well received by the community.  Implications: Colleges of Nursing can find many ways to engage the community and their graduate students in Million Hearts^® while contributing to national health promotion initiatives.