Nursing Care for Decreased Cardiac Output Singapore

Nursing Care for Decreased Cardiac Output Singapore

Introduction

Decreased cardiac output can be a life-threatening heart problem. In layman’s term, decreased cardiac output means there is a lesser or inadequate pump of blood into the heart that may compromise the body. This can be caused by several factors such as anatomical heart or rhythm problems or electrolyte imbalances. The usual complain of the patient is palpitation which can be a fast heart beat or sometimes the heart skips a beat. Palpitations are normal if it occurs once in a while. It can be caused by several factors such as lack of sleep, exercise, acid reflux, anxiety, stress and so on and so forth. Other symptoms may be nausea, dizziness, weak or absent pulse, edema, hypotension, jugular vein distention and difficulty of breathing to name a few.

Nursing interventions

Careful planning must be done by the nurse to ensure quality care with these patients. The care plan must be catered to their cases. Usually one of the things that the nurse must do is to attach the patient to a cardiac monitor. This will monitor the pulse, blood pressure, respiration, and the oxygen saturation at home or hospital. This will also allow the telemetry nurse to see the rhythm associated with the problem which can be seen immediately by the physician. The nurse must also review the diagnostic tests done to ensure that there are no problems with the blood electrolytes, pulmonary, cardiac blood work-up amongst others. The nurse must also monitor for the fluid intake and output and the baseline weight of the patient. Patients with diagnosis of decreased cardiac output are usually placed and monitored in the ICU. Adequate rest should be given to them and any change or signs of problem should be reported to the intensivist immediately.

If ordered, the nurse can carry out the orders or interventions and start giving medicines that increases the cardiac output of the heart rate. These medicines may include inotropic agents, vasodilators, ace inhibitors which the nurse can adjust by increments (increased) or decrements (decrease) of a certain value. In cases of extreme heart disease, cardiac failure may occur to some patients. This can also happen during heart attack, extremely high blood pressure, and again imbalances in the electrolytes of the body. Health education is also an integral part of the nursing care plan. The nurse must teach the patient about living a healthy lifestyle like smoking cessation, eating a balanced diet, exercising at least 30 minutes a day, monitoring his or her blood pressure to name a few.

Conclusion

The nurse doing the intervention of health plans for this kind of patient must see the risk and put time into consideration for related abnormal symptoms. Constant assess ment must be done to establish normal peripheral and venous perfusion the soonest. Sign of body changes must be reported to the attending physician immediately. This kind of nursing care plan will help the patient cope with their condition.

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