Managing Cardiovascular Complications of Pregnancy

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Over the past 30 years, the number of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. has more than doubled, from 7.2 women dying per 100,000 live births in 1987 to 16.9 women in 2016. By comparison, on average in high-income countries, 11 women die for every 100,000 live births.

CVD a leading cause of maternal mortality.

There are many reasons why more women die from pregnancy-related causes in the U.S. than in other developed countries; our dysfunctional health care system is, of course, a central problem. But is there more that nurses can do to ensure safe and healthy pregnancies?

“Cardiovascular diseases constitute a leading cause of maternal and fetal mortality in pregnant women… [In recent studies], inadequate peripartum follow-up—such as failure to evaluate new symptoms, reevaluate existing symptoms, or respond to changes without delay—was responsible for between one-quarter and two-thirds of deaths associated with pregnancy-specific cardiovascular diseases.”

That’s from “Gestational Hypertension, Preeclampsia, and Peripartum Cardiomyopathy:  A Clinical Review,in the November issue of AJN. In this CE feature article, Maheu-Cadotte and colleagues at the Université de Montréal provide an update on the current management of gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and peripartum cardiomyopathy.

Risks […]

2019-11-08T12:09:08-05:00November 8th, 2019|Nursing|0 Comments

Hodgkin Lymphoma: Knowing the Long-Term Treatment Effects

Most nurses will likely encounter a Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) survivor at some point, but will they know what to assess for?

‘Hodgkin’s is the good one to get.’

When I was going to graduate school, I worked part-time for a hematologist who mostly treated people with leukemias and lymphomas. Many of them had Hodgkin lymphoma (though we called it Hodgkin’s disease then). I administered chemotherapy, did a lot of patient teaching and a lot of listening and answering questions for this largely young group of patients. Most were close to my own age; it was easy to relate to their shock at finding out they had a life-threatening disease and that the treatment would not be easy.

I especially recall two young women—one had gone to her physician for a pre-marriage physical; the other went for a check-up because she felt she wasn’t “bouncing back” from the birth of her daughter three months previously. They were distraught at the diagnosis, and as they went through chemotherapy, they were often depressed over the side effects from the drugs: hair loss, GI upset, and fatigue.

But both of them did well. I remember the physician telling them his standard line, “If you had to get cancer, Hodgkin’s is the good one to get,” since it was often curable when […]

Smoking Still Kills…in So Many Ways

Seven million tobacco deaths per year.

Today, May 31, is World No Tobacco Day, declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) to bring attention to the health problems caused by smoking. According to the WHO fact sheet on tobacco,

“Tobacco kills more than 7 million people each year. More than 6 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 890,000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.”

When nurses smoked at the nurses’ station.

It’s amazing to me how far we’ve come in a relatively short time in curbing smoking. When I first started working in hospitals, nurses would be smoking at the nurses’ station; shift report was often in a smoke-filled room; patients and visitors were allowed to smoke as long as there was no oxygen tank in the room. And I always hated sitting in the airline seat that was the dividing row from the smoking section—as if a small sign on the seat made a difference in keeping the smoke at bay!

Some resources.

This year, the focus is on smoking as a leading cause of cardiovascular disease—second only to hypertension. Here are some articles from AJN, plus resources that provide information about the mulitple negative health effects of […]

AJN February Issue News: Linking RN Perception of Workplace Safety and Patient Care, Aid for Family Caregivers, More

AJN’s monthly news section covers timely and important research and policy stories that are relevant to the nursing world. Here are some of the stories you’ll find in our current issue:

A hospital nurse prepares toxic medication using a biological safety cabinet. Photo © Horizon International Images Limited / Alamy Stock Photo.

How Does RN Perception of Workplace Safety Relate to Patient Care?

A new report by health care consulting firm Press Ganey found that higher nurse-rated scores for workplace safety and surveillance capacity were associated with higher nurse ratings of quality of care, lower rates of missed-care events, and lower rates of pressure ulcers and patient falls.

Bipartisan Bills Propose Assistance for Caregivers

Two bills currently before Congress would reduce burdens of care for family members, if passed: one would establish […]

2017-02-21T10:16:42-05:00February 21st, 2017|Nursing|0 Comments

American Heart Month: Education, Awareness Crucial to Fight Heart Disease

beating heart still © American Heart Association

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaimed the first ever American Heart Month: “It is essential to the health and well-being of our nation that our citizens be made aware of the medical, social, and economic aspects of the problem of cardiovascular diseases, and the measures being taken to combat them.” Cardiovascular diseases has to be treated every day by doing exercise, there´s plenty of exercises you can do to better your health, one of the best ones I know is boxing but there is Some things you’ll need for boxing before you even start practicing.

The tradition has continued every February since then, and the need to raise awareness about cardiovascular health remains urgent: heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 610,000 Americans die of heart disease each year.

Women may be particularly at risk, both because the warning signs of heart disease can be different for women than for men and because of common misconceptions about heart disease risk, such as the idea that heart disease only affects men or older adults. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) kills one in three American women—but the American Heart Association (AHA) says 80% of those deaths could […]

2018-02-06T10:21:39-05:00February 11th, 2016|Nursing, Patients|1 Comment
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