Relationship between Nurses Qualifications and their Roles in Prevention of High Blood Pressure in Primary Health Care Centers in Delta State

Nurses are involved in the prevention and management of chronic diseases like hypertension in primary health care settings. However, information about the roles of nurses in prevention and managing high blood pressure in South-South Nigeria remains scarce. Therefore, this research attempts to relate the performance of nurses roles in preventing high blood pressure with their qualifications in primary health care centres in Delta State. Interviewer’s administered questionnaire was used to gather information from eighty-five nurses chosen from the twenty-nine randomly selected primary health care centres in the twenty five local government areas of Delta State. Results show that the nurses performed the roles at varying degrees judged to be poor overall. The nurses’ identified roles and level of performance bear no significant relationship to their qualifications. It was also observed that most of the nurses had no training in the management of hypertension and do not use the recommended NHA guidelines. These indicate the need for facilitators to organize training courses on hypertension management for nurses, and integrate such into the curriculum for nursing education.