Impact of Cardiovascular Diseases on Nursing Practice

This article discusses the impact of cardiovascular diseases on nursing practice, including the risks faced by nurses, effects on their work, and recommendations for improving patient care.

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Cardiovascular Diseases
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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IMPACT OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES ON NURSING PRACTICE
Introduction
Cardiovascular diseases are identified as classes of conditions that involve the heart and
blood vessels. Cardiovascular diseases are known as the number one cause of death globally.
More individuals die because yearly from cardiovascular conditions than any other state. There
are strategies that can be used to prevent most of the cardiovascular diseases like obesity, use of
tobacco, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and harmful use of alcohol by addressing the
behavioral risk factors (6 Cardiovascular Diseases, 2017). Cardiovascular conditions include
heart attacks, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, rheumatic heart condition, peripheral artery
disease, congenital heart disease, and heart failure. The leading causes of cardiovascular diseases
are an unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and tobacco use. Over 75% of cardiovascular
conditions deaths take place in low and middle-income nations and happens equally in males and
females.
The risk of heart attacks and strokes is increased by tobacco use, physical inactivity, and
an unhealthy diet. High blood pressure does not have symptoms, but also it can cause a sudden
stroke or heart attack. Diabetes also increases the risk of heart attacks and stroke. Overweight
and obesity also increase the risk of heart and strokes. Low socioeconomic status also increases
the chances of exposure to risk factors and increases the vulnerability to develop cardiovascular
diseases (Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), 2018). Cardiovascular diseases affect many people
globally in middle age and severely limiting income and savings which in turn affects people and
their families. Low earnings and out of pocket health care payments undermine the
socioeconomic development of countries. Cardiovascular diseases place a heavy burden on

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economies of enemies. Many families particularly those who have a low income are significantly
affected.
Effects on nursing practice
Nurses with regards to their working conditions, they can be vulnerable to suffering from
cardiovascular diseases. Nurses play a significant role in managing and preventing
cardiovascular diseases. They are always the first and more consistent point of contacts for the
sufferers. They are often in the best position to collect information about a sufferer’s family like
social, economic and cultural factors which might be vital in developing an intervention (Byrne
et al., 2015). The increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases will affect the work of the
nurses whether they work in the community or work in institutions.
Various health issues like neurological disorders and cardiovascular conditions will arise
due to their involvement with the cardiovascular patients. Also, cardiovascular conditions lead to
problems like burnout, absenteeism or changing jobs. If nurses are short staffed, it can bring
about professional issues or even personal issues. Patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases
require critical attention. Due to short staffing in many hospitals, the present nurses are
overworked hence experiencing burn out. It will make them more frustrated and be unsatisfied
with their work due to a lot of work.
Working in the hospital places nurses in various hazards. For example, they are exposed
to the patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases. Apart from that, it also puts their safety at
risk since they are prone to infections (Home, n.d). Many nurses are at risk of suffering from
heart diseases and diabetes without their knowledge. Furthermore, nurses play an essential role

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in advancing public health; their real predicament causes a reduction in their beneficial service
period and suffering.
Lack of appropriate technological equipment in treating cardiovascular conditions makes
it hard for the nurses to attend to the patents quickly. Also, many people are suffering from
cardiovascular diseases particularly the old hence lack of enough resources may lead to more
deaths or create a long-term impact on the patient and can cause a reduction in the lifespan of the
patient (Maulik, 2013). The number of sufferers is increasing on a daily basis hence there must
be proper equipment and machines that will be used to treat them. Due to the amount of work
that they do when dealing with cardiovascular patients, they suffer from back pains. They hurt
their backs when they are shifting bedridden sufferers or moving them among stretchers, bed,
and chairs since the sufferers need to be handled with care.
Cardiovascular sufferers tend to see the nurses as individuals who should be available at
the beck and call. Majority of the victims are usually dissatisfied with the service that the nurses
provide. Some patients often appear dissatisfied and angry at life because they might have
learned about the long-term effects of their cardiovascular conditions. This makes them despise
and disrespect the nurses many times. They claim that they don’t receive the respect that they
deserve from the cardiovascular patients (Ross, 2015). Due to this, they develop stress hence
they won't do their work as they are required. This will encourage disrespect and hatred towards
one another in the healthcare facility.
Cardiovascular diseases require adequate attention and a lot of hard work. Nurses are
always undervalued by the doctors, colleagues and the families of the cardiovascular patients
who are expecting them to be tireless angels who do not need a break. Nurses, both male and

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female can either make progress in the management of cardiovascular diseases. Due to this, they
experience high stress and feel overworked. Some nurses may feel that they are superior to
others in the department making them feel useless. The unfortunate characteristics of these
personality engagements are that it is the sufferers who are often neglected as the caring nurse
gets caught up in broken personality issues surrounding them.
The present-day requirement of nurses because of the increased number of cardiovascular
patients who require direct care. The nursing shortage has led to neglecting some patients’ hence
increases the mortality rate (Zoghbi et al., 2017). Due to the negligence that they face, the
patients may become arrogant and ungrateful for the work that the available nurses are doing.
Cardiovascular patients are usually at risk of dying because of unavailability of nurses.
Therefore, it is essential for the hospital manager to ensure that the nurses are available and
treated with care so that the cardiovascular patients can get needed treatment.
Recommendations
For the patients to feel safe in a healthcare environment, the nurses must be patient-
centered. This means that the nurse manager must always ensure that the health care facilities
and care patterns being arranged to accommodate the experience of cardiovascular diseases in
the patients' perspective. It is vital for the nurse manager to ensure that the nurses are attending to
their specific patients to help them through their healing process. This will ensure that the best
outcome is achieved regardless of the challenges (Mandade, 2011). Through this, the nurses will
help the nurses to consider the victim’s desires, values and family contexts, and their lifestyle.
This might be seen through sharing decisions with the sufferers and assisting individuals to
manage their health. Patient-centered is about the way people maintain their health and their

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relationship as the service is available. This will enhance a good relationship between the nurses
and the cardiovascular sufferers.
Additionally, guideline execution is highly recommended in dealing with cardiovascular
patients. The guidelines have the potential to standardize and improve and sustain the quality of
care for cardiovascular diseases. Research has indicated that guideline executions through
workshops lead to significant improvements in the quality of the cardiovascular diseases. Mckee
et al., (2017) asserted that providing nurses with a clinical decision support system to go through
guideline-based cardiovascular management has led to the reduction of cardiovascular diseases
significantly. This will help the health fraternity to take care of the cardiovascular patients and
focus on improving the quality of the health care services that they provide (Yusuf et al., 2015).
The guidelines aim at improving their services to cardiovascular patients which will help in
creating awareness about the dangers of cardiovascular diseases.
Another recommendation is cultural competency. It encourages nurses to deliver quality
care to increasingly diverse cardiovascular disease sufferers. The risk of cardiovascular
conditions and health effects are influenced by environmental, economic, social and biological
elements. Although cardiovascular conditions in racial and ethnic minority groups are scarce, the
sufferers are increasing on a daily basis. This is due to the challenges that individuals who are
not part of the dormant culture are facing. Therefore it is essential for cardiovascular disease
nurses to undergo more training and research to provide quality healthcare (Fry, 2011). For the
nurses' management to attain equal results, cardiovascular nurses should adopt a range of cultural
and social settings. Competence suggests that the health expert can function effectively with a
culturally diverse community. The nurse manager has to ensure that the nurses are aware of their
own beliefs and attitudes about racial and ethnic minorities and not to indulge their feelings on

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clinical interactions that can severely affect the cardiovascular patients. They are also required to
appreciate the patients’ views and relate in a nonjudgmental way. The health experts should
always use the cultural competency skills in clinical interactions. This is essential because there
will be respect between the cardiovascular patients and the nurses. Also, the patients will be able
to open up so that they can be able to be assisted. The nurses must always have the cultural
competence and also have a comprehension about diverse perspectives (Jeffreys, 2015).
Cardiovascular leaders should mentor nurses’ culturally diverse groups to enhance participation
of individuals so that cardiovascular nursing activities reflect the cultural composition of the
wider society.
Furthermore, system change competency and evidence-based practice is essential for the
enhancement of the quality of preventive care and progressing patient care objectives are
attained by translating evidence into practice. Research and findings in nursing practice are vital
for improving the quality and results of care and its integral to the leadership actions of
cardiovascular nurses. Competence in this setting involves the engagement of multiple sources of
knowledge and present best practice evidence into health care. Knowledge and evidence come
from clinical data and experiences and enhancement of quality efforts.
This evidence is significant because the nurses will understand a particular preventive
situation and how the cardiovascular patients are supposed to be handled. For example, the
evidence concerning preventive cardiovascular advantages of moving to added physical activity
from inactive position might be used to integrate physical activity assessment for every primary
care victim and to champion for a decrease to physical activity in a developed setting. System
competency is essential to cardiovascular nurses since it provides them with information
regarding the treatment that the patient needs. Research helps the nurses to gain more

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information about cardiovascular conditions (Noble & Smith, 2015). The nurse manager must
always ensure that nurses are updated about cardiovascular diseases often since it will help in
creating awareness.
Information and technology communication is highly recommended since it is needed for
the treatment of cardiovascular disease patients. It is a significant tool for the nurses to promote a
prevention strategy that can address the issue of emerging cardiovascular conditions in many
countries. Advancement in information and technology creates new opportunities for the nurses
to mobilize globally for prevention and control of cardiovascular conditions. This is essential
particularly for the nurses who require networking, changing of ideas and access to critical
information in regards to cardiovascular diseases (Winter, Sheats & King, 2016). Technology
can also help them to sensitize the public about the vastness of cardiovascular conditions and
also creating awareness about the risks and preventive methods.
Relevant information should be collected and successfully used to progress in
cardiovascular prevention. Technology is essential since it holds a substantial position in the
world today since it is seen as a broader strategy that engages conventional communication
media which is used to label the data requirements for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.
The nurse manager must always ensure that the nurses know how to use technology to ensure
individuals within their locality understand cardiovascular prevention. Appearing technologies
create opportunities to reduce the demands and burdens related to cardiovascular diseases. (Roth
et al., 2017).Current interventions of cardiovascular diseases are supported by the advancement
of technology. However, technology will not change the outcome of the victim, and the nurses
are unable to use the machines correctly. Technology advancement plays a vital role in the

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prevention and intervention of cardiovascular diseases. Therefore the nurse manager has to
ensure that the treatment equipment is updated which will create room for quality improvement.
The nurse manager should also have a partnership with other non-governmental agencies
to help in creating awareness about the risks of cardiovascular diseases (Budoff & Shinbane,
2016). This partnership will create more opportunities for the society to engage with the nurses
since it will enhance a good relationship between the patients and the health practitioners
(Record et al., 2015). The government should also ensure that there is enough health personnel to
take care of cardiovascular patients so that there can be a reduction in the number of
cardiovascular victims (DeFilippis et al., 2015). Partnerships are essential since it focuses on
reflecting the ability to join with the sufferers, other caregivers, and societies for adequate health
care and giving the community an opportunity for positive interaction.
In conclusion, cardiovascular diseases pose a threat since it is known as a number one
cause of death worldwide. Various health issues arise when the nurses are overworked and are
vulnerable to cardiovascular diseases due to their working conditions. Cultural and system
competency is recommended because it helps in cardiovascular prevention. Relevant information
and technology are needed for cardiovascular intervention. Therefore it is essential for the nurse
manager to provide a way for research to take place since it is vital in nursing practice.

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