Abstract
Providing clinical nursing care to a patient with a heart disease requires the application of the knowledge of disease process which informs the nursing intervention. This paper presents a discussion on some priority aspects of clinical care for the patient with heart failure from the perspective of nursing care as summarized in the figure below. A brief summative overview of the disease process and the central concept in heart failure as fundamental to the conceptualization of clinical care needs for a patient with heart failure was presented. Application of the framework of the nursing process in providing clinical nursing care for a patient with a heart disease and the application of ethical principles were discussed. Thus, competent and therefore safe clinical care for a patient with heart failure requires comprehensive nursing care which embraces both the scientific approach and ethics of care.
Highlights
The heart is a vital organ of the cardio-vascular system which is responsible for the maintenance of a balanced blood circulation throughout the body for the purpose of delivering oxygen and nutrients to the body systems, thereby ensuring the end-organ functioning and the elimination of the metabolic wastes from the body [1,2,3,4,5]
The left sided heart failure is characterized by a lowered cardiac output, followed by lowered delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the body systems
A systematic investigation of available textbooks was conducted in regard to the clinical nursing care for patients with heart diseases
Summary
The heart is a vital organ of the cardio-vascular system which is responsible for the maintenance of a balanced blood circulation throughout the body for the purpose of delivering oxygen and nutrients to the body systems, thereby ensuring the end-organ functioning and the elimination of the metabolic wastes from the body [1,2,3,4,5].Before discussing the nursing care for a patient with heart failure, a brief summary of the overview of the disease process or the pathophysiology of heart failure is presented within the nursing perspective, an understanding of which informs a nursing care plan. Heart failure (right or left) is the inability of the heart to maintain a balanced circulation of the blood in the body [2,3]. The right sided heart failure is mainly characterized by the inability to maintain sufficient venous return, followed by systemic congestion, retention of metabolic wastes and the resultant edema and metabolic acidosis [1,2,4]. The left sided heart failure is characterized by a lowered cardiac output, followed by lowered delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the body systems. This result into lowered body metabolism, as may be characterized by lowered systemic output, such as low body temperature (hypothermia) among others. The inability of the left ventricle to empty itself causes pulmonary congestion and this result into poor gases exchange, low oxygen tension in the body-hypoxia as may be evidenced by visible cyanosis or by presentation of the signs of systemic hypoxia, such as general weakness [5,6]
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