The cardiovascular system and associated disorders

The heart is located near the midline of the thoracic cavity, commonly known as the mediastinum, and rests on the diaphragm (Cook et al, 2021). The mediastinum is the space in the centre of the thorax...

Developing the Heart Failure Specialist Nurse Competency Framework

In recent years, globally, the profile of the nursing profession has increased and with it the demand for nurses to work at advanced levels of nursing practice, with such roles requiring a range of...

Cardiovascular disease risk in rheumatoid arthritis

In patients with rheumatoid arthritis, regular screening and management of hyperlipidemia, hypertension, diabetes and obesity are vital to mitigate cardiovascular risk. Other variables, such as...

Critical thinking and diagnostic reasoning of the heart and cardiovascular system

Chest pain is a common complaint, comprising up to 25% of emergency department attendances (Byrne, 2014). Not all of these will have a cardiac complaint; however, it is crucial to recognise important...

A novel heart failure care pathway developed during the pandemic

Working to reduce the problem of thromboembolism in pregnant women

Consultation and clinical assessment of the heart and cardiovascular system

There is clearly a wide range of considerations in the history due to the variety of pathologies that can present. These will be explored in more depth in the next article, together with discussion of...

Chronic limb ischaemia: case study and clinical literature review

PAD affects more than 200 million people worldwide (Yang et al, 2017) and is the third most common clinical presentation of atherosclerosis after coronary artery disease (CAD) and stroke (Song et al,...

Prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder and its predictors following coronary artery bypass graft surgery

This study aimed to answer the following research questions:.

Impact of nurse-initiated education on HeartScore in patients with hypertension: a randomised trial

The study was approved by the ethics committee of the hospital (17929/19-7-13). A written consent form was obtained from all participants. The investigation conformed to the principles outlined in the...

COVID-19 and adult congenital heart disease services: impact on support and advice from nurse specialists

A questionnaire was sent to ACHD CNSs across the UK, via email, at the end of March 2020. It asked how many nurses were planned to be retained in their service and how many were planned to be...

The role of single-use ECG leads in reducing healthcare-associated infections

In the clinical setting, monitoring a patient's ECG rhythm requires a minimum of three electrodes (Figure 1), which are connected to colour-coded leads to aid identification, and these are usually...