A new tool to help clinicians treating patients at risk of heart failure has been released by the Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association (PCNA).
The downloadable reference to prevention and management of heart failure includes a prescriber’s guide to slow the progression of HF. It also outlines the classifications stages and classes of HF, steps for evaluation and diagnosis of patients, lifestyle management and exercise/cardiac rehabilitation options, patient self-monitoring, as well as guideline-directed medical therapy.
It also sets out therapeutic management choices beyond pharmacotherapies as well as when to consider referral to a HF specialist, along with guidance for palliative and end-of-life care.
“Advances in HF care delay the progression of disease but rarely lead to a cure, such that palliative care needs of the patient must be considered,” it says.
PCNA notes that one in five Americans over 40 will develop heart failure, with 6 million living with it today, a number expected to increase to 8 million by the end of the decade. The risk factors and co-morbidities range from coronary artery disease, hypertension and abnormal heart valves to diabetes obesity and sleep apnea.
Women’s heart health has received increasing attention recently, including studies on how the length of a woman’s menstrual cycle in the years just prior to menopause can offer clues to their risk of developing heart disease, how broken heart syndrome is on the rise. and how common infertility treatments can lead to higher vascular complications.
The PCNA tool, along with the recently released JACC Chest Pain Guideline Interactive Tool can be useful additions to Women’s health nurse practitioners’ toolbox