Health and Faith Working to Control Blood Pressure

Inclusion Criteria: * We will be including adults who are 18 years and older who have attended a health fair or screening event at one of QueensCare Health and Faith Partnership parish nurse sponsored church events in Los Angeles. * Patients must be either English or Spanish speaking. * Patients will be enrolled by blood pressure readings at the screening event. We will be using the JNC 71 criteria for diagnosing hypertension. * Patients with blood pressures above 140/90 will be defined as hypertensive. * Diagnosed and previously undiagnosed hypertensive patients will be included in the study. * The patient must also be able to come to the follow-up appointment in 4 months. Exclusion Criteria: * Pregnant women will not be included in the study. * Patients who do not speak English or Spanish will be excluded from the study since we do not have the capacity to translate all our materials into multiple languages. * Those deemed by the research assistant to be incapable to give informed consent (due to intoxication, dementia, or other causes) will also be excluded from the study. * Patients younger than 18 years old will be excluded from the study. * Patients who have seen a parish nurse in her office hours in the past 6 months will be excluded from the study. We do not want patients who have an already established relationship with a parish nurse to be enrolled in the study with the chance of being randomized to the physician-only arm, which would interrupt the continuity of …