Heart Disease
Pathopharmacological Foundations for Advanced Nursing Practice
A. Investigate one of the following disease processes: traumatic brain injury, depression, obesity, asthma, or heart disease.
B. Analyze how the selected disease process affects patients, families, and populations in your community.
C. Discuss how you will promote best practices for managing the selected disease in your current healthcare organization.
D. When you use sources include all in-text citations and references in APA format.
C155 – Pathopharmacological Foundations for Advanced Nursing Practice
Health is a fundamental human requirement that the government should consider as a priority when offering its services to citizens. The government should make appropriate intervention to prevent the emergence of certain ailments, and come up with effective measures to prevent further contamination or harm. One of the areas that the government and non-governmental institutions that focus on health should look into is the management of heart diseases that are becoming rampant in many parts of the country. Coming up with the most effective ways of managing heart disease would help to control this health condition.
Part A
Esselstyn (2008) describes heart diseases to be a range of conditions that are likely to affect human heart. Individuals who suffer from a heart disease may develop heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias), coronary artery disease, or may be living with an inborn heart disease such as congenital heart defects. Individuals normally develop heart disease either due to injuries in the heart or buildup of fatty substances in the blood arteries.
- Pathophysiology of Heart Disease
People who suffer from heart diseases normally exhibit some traits that are common with this condition. In many cases, patients do not want to perform duties that require so much energy to avoid complicating the condition. Besides avoiding tasks that require so much energy, such people tend to experience some form of pain in the heart (Esselstyn, 2008). Lastly, a patient who lives with the condition may experience irregular heartbeats and blood flow.
- Standard Practice
- Evidence-Based Pharmacological Treatments
The persons who suffer from heart diseases normally get help from qualified personnel who at least hold a Bachelor’s degree. Patients normally attend counseling that provides them with adequate information on how to cope with the condition. During this process, the interveners must employ the skills they acquired from the training school and the workplace. Individuals who suffer from heart disease may also get medical prescriptions from specialists that can help to manage the condition. In many instances, patients get drugs such as Eplerenone, Spironolactone, and Angiotension II Receptor Blockers (Esselstyn, 2008). The healthcare givers have to ensure that the drugs do not generate any negative effect on users.
- Guidelines for Assessment, Diagnosis, and Patient Education
The persons who take charge of helping individuals who live with heart disease should follow particular clinical guidelines when carrying out assessment, diagnosis, and patient education. One of the fundamental aspects that specialists ought to consider is the level of the patient’s knowledge to identify the most appropriate intervention methods to use. The experts should also inform patients about the positive and negative effects of certain medication processes to allow them make personal choices.
- Standard of Practice at the County and State Levels
The manner in which health institutions manage heart disease at Alcona County in Michigan is inferior to the way intervention happens at the state level. Health facilities at the county level do not have advanced programs that may effectively help individuals who live with serious heart conditions to overcome the situation. A comparison of activities at the two levels also shows that patients at the state level have access to more effective drugs compared to those who receive services at the county level.
- Characteristics of and Resources for a Patient
A patient who manages heart disease well has certain characteristics and should have access to certain resources to live a healthy life. One of the characteristic of this patient is that they regularly attend clinical check-ups to ensure that their health is stable and that nothing puts them at a great risk of developing complex conditions. A person who manages heart disease well must ensure that they have a medical cover, and that they can easily access medical centers. McMurray (2016) also asserts that individual who manages the condition must also have quick access to medical care to make it easy to attend to urgent situations.
- Management of Depression on a National and International Level
Apart from the disparity that exists in how healthcare givers handle the situation at the county and state’s level, some differences exist in how health institutions handle the case at the national and international levels. The major difference that McMurray (2016) finds to exist in how the US handles heart disease in relation to other nations is that at the national level, qualified specialists within the country take charge of the mediation process. However, individuals who have wide experience and knowledge in managing depression take charge of activities at the international level.
- Factors that Contribute to a Patient being able to manage Depression
Several factors would make it easy for victims to manage heart disease quite effectively. One of the vital ones is for patients to have good access to financial resources that would enable them acquire drugs and other forms of medication. The second fundamental requirement for individuals who live with heart disease is to have easy access to care such as hospitals or help from friends and family members. Easy access to care makes it possible to get attention on emergency cases and situations (McMurray, 2016). Finally, individuals who have health insurance are in a good position to manage the condition compared to those who live with the condition but do not have a health cover.
4, a. Effects of Lack of Essential Factors
Lack of finances, access to care, and insurance cover may have detrimental effects on the process of managing health disease. Lack of finances makes it difficult to acquire effective drugs and access other therapeutic interventions that help to manage the health condition. Lack of easy access to health care on the other hand, may be dangerous when a patient needs urgent treatment about his or her condition. Lastly, lack of health insurance cover for patients with heart disease may force patients to spend so much money to treat their condition. The high financial burden may even deny some people the opportunity to access healthcare, which may only worsen their condition.
4, a. i. Characteristics of a Patient with unmanaged Condition
It is easy to identify individuals who live with heart diseases that are not properly managed. Such individuals may be shy to talk about their condition and may opt to keep to themselves. Secondly, individuals who live with a heart disease that is not managed may experience many instances of heart attacks or even stroke, and this can easily result in death. Thirdly, McMurray (2016) write that individuals who live with the condition may always complain about pains in the heart or chest cavity.
B. Effects of Heart Disease in Patients, Families, and Populations in the Community
Heart disease has some negative implications on the patients, the families of the victims, and the entire population where the case occurs. Esselstyn (2008) also argues that patients lead a stressful life, which deprives happiness from them. The patient may also have to live on medicine, which is not what any person would want. The victim’s family, on the other hand, may have to incur high financial costs to treat the sick member. The community in its part may have to spend more time taking care of the sick instead of using the time to make economic gains.
- Financial Costs for Patients, Families, and Populations in the Community
Reports indicate that patients who live with heart disease spend so much money to manage the condition, and this is similar to families and the larger population. An investigation shows that patients spend at least $7500 yearly in managing the condition while families may spend as much as $17500 to manage the condition (Esselstyn, 2008). The community may spend at least $21000 annually to manage the condition because the maintenance program at this level may include constructing health facilities and performing free heart disease screening.
C. How to promote best practices for managing Depression
The sensitization at the place of work will majorly take the form of word of mouth whereby I will take the initiative to inform other workers how to prevent and manage heart disease. I will urge fellow workers to seek information on how to manage the condition individually. In addition, I will stress on the idea that failure to take individual measures may later result in outcomes that are difficult to manage.
- Strategies for Implementing Best Practices at the Health Organization
I would employ different approaches to implement effective strategies for managing heart disease at the healthcare organization. One of the tactics would be to form partnerships with other organizations that major in helping persons who live with the condition. The second strategy would be to appeal for assistance from the government particularly when it comes to financial help. The third strategy I would use to promote best practices for managing the condition at the healthcare organization is to organize internal seminars where members of the public attend and get teachings on how to prevent and manage heart disease.
- Evaluation of the Implementation of the Strategies
I would use different methodologies to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies that help to manage heart disease at the health facility. First, I would identify the interest other organizations have in promoting the program. A positive attitude would show that the organizations have the desire to assist. Secondly, I would measure the level of interest the government has in supporting the program. Constant financial support would show high level of interest while irregular supply of funds would mean lack of dedication. Finally, I would measure the effectiveness of the internal seminars by noting the number of people who attend the meetings. High turnouts would mean positive response while low turnouts would indicate poor attitude towards the seminar.
Conclusion
It is important to embrace effective ways of managing heart disease to lower the prevalence of the condition. Health experts should take charge of the intervention process, and the government should offer a helping hand. Lastly, individuals should take the initiative to learn how to prevent and manage heart disease that occurs in different ways.
References
Esselstyn, C. (2008). Prevent and reverse heart disease: The revolutionary, scientifically, proven, nutrition-based care. New York, NY: Avery
McMurray, J. (2016). The ICD in heart failure: Time for a rethink. The New England Journal of Medicine, 375, 1283-1284
