Hypertension: role of the nurse-therapist.

In this article, we describe the evolution of the hypertension nurse-therapist program at the Mayo Clinic. Because of the large numbers of patients in whom hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, a leading cause of death in the United States and other industrialized nations, an approach was devised in which, with physician supervision, specially trained nurses managed many aspects of the acute and long-term outpatient care of hypertensive patients. Clinical trials in which nonphysician care-providers were used to treat hypertensive patients and to maintain long-term blood pressure control provided an opportunity to identify and to expand the concept of continuing care for blood pressure management in a community hypertension clinic. Currently, almost 7,000 patient visits are scheduled annually in this program, and these patients are seen by five full-time hypertension nurse-therapists.