How to Become a Nurse Practitioner

Running head: ESSAY 1
Family nurse practitioner (Cardiac assessment)
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

ESSAY 2
Introduction
Conduction of a thorough and comprehensive cardiac assessment facilitates easy
identification of the substantial factors that create an impact on cardiovascular health
outcomes such as, cigarette smoking, hypertension, high blood cholesterol, alcohol
consumption, obesity, or diabetes mellitus. This assignment will provide answers to different
questions related to a 68 year old female patient.
Subjective data
Subjective data generally encompass the information by taking into consideration the
point of view of the patient (symptoms), and commonly comprises of feelings, discernments,
and anxieties acquired through comprehensive interviews. She reported feelings of chest
pain at the time of doing laundry. This can be a direct manifestation of angina that occurs due
to lack of adequate blood flow to cardiac muscles. On assessing the patient, it has been found
that the female has a previous medical history of hypercholesteremia and anxiety. The
former refers to the presence of excess cholesterol in the plasma and cells of the circulating
blood, which in turn might have resulted in the development of atheromatous plaques in the
patient’s arteries (Padró, Vilahur & Badimon, 2020). Her history of anxiety can be associated
to an increase in blood pressure, thereby making the patient more likely to suffer from chest
pain (Tully, Harrison, Cheung & Cosh, 2016). The family history of myocardial infarction
also suggests that she might inherit cardiac disorders from her father. She needs to be
questioned about signs and symptoms of sweating, palpitations, dizziness, or shortness of
breath, since they represent heart failure or an irregular heart rhythm or heart failure. It is
imperative to ask her questions about her medical history like heart murmurs, rheumatic
fever, congenital heart disease, recurrent tonsillitis, and unexplained joint pain during youth
and anemia (Lapum et al., 2019). Moreover, her current lifestyle also needs to be investigated
in relation to habits of smoking, alcohol, exercise, drugs, and nutrition.

ESSAY 3
Objective assessment
The patient reports increased blood pressure, excess LDL, low HDL,
high glucose levels, and is overweight. Owing to the fact that
obese persons necessitate more blood for supplying nutrients and oxygen,
there occurs an increase in blood pressure (Ortega, Lavie, & Blair, 2016).
Moreover, HDL cholesterol is significant for the elimination of bad
cholesterol and its inadequacy might have also triggered hypertension in
the patient (Varbo & Nordestgaard, 2019). Hypertension has might have
resulted in excess strain, thereby narrowing the coronary arteries due to
accumulation of cholesterol and fat, and subsequently causing chest pain
(Kjeldsen, 2018). During objective assessment, the patient needs to be
subjected to palpation, percussion, and auscultation to detect the heart
beats and rhythm. Presence of murmur will provide indication for
abnormal blood flow or inadequate valves. In addition, she will also be
subjected to examination of the thorax, eyes, Central Venous Pressure (CVP),
and jugular veins.
Diagnosis
The patient might be suffering from myocardial infarction, aortic stenosis,
hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or ischemia. Myocardial infarction occurs due to decrease or
stoppage in blood flow to a region of the heart, thus damaging the cardiac muscles and
involves discomfort or chest pain that travels to the jaw, back, arm or shoulder (Thygesen et
al., 2019). Aortic stenosis involves narrowing to the left ventricle exit such that there occurs
chest pain during physical activity (Chin et al., 2017). Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy also
manifests in the form of chest pain and might have occurred due to hypertrophy of
interventricular septum, eventually obstructing the outflow of left ventricle (Marian &