European journal of cardiovascular nursing : journal of the Working Group on Cardiovascular Nursing of the European Society of Cardiology
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Eur J Cardiovasc Nurs · Aug 2015
Multicenter StudyFeasibility of a nursing intervention to prepare frail older patients for cardiac surgery: a mixed-methods study.
Given the growing number of vulnerable, older cardiac surgery patients, the preadmission PREvention Decline in Older Cardiac Surgery patients (PREDOCS) programme was developed to reduce the incidence of postoperative complications. Before the clinical effects of such a complex multicomponent intervention can be evaluated, the feasibility needs to be determined to detect possible problems with the acceptability, compliance and delivery. ⋯ The PREDOCS programme is acceptable for patients and nurses but should be built into the hospital's cardiac surgery pathway or applied in home care.
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Eur J Cardiovasc Nurs · Aug 2015
Randomized Controlled TrialFeasibility and reliability of pocket-size ultrasound examinations of the pleural cavities and vena cava inferior performed by nurses in an outpatient heart failure clinic.
Routine assessment of volume state by ultrasound may improve follow-up of heart failure patients. ⋯ Specialized nurses were, after a dedicated training protocol, able to obtain reliable recordings of both pleural cavities and the inferior vena cava by PSID and interpret the images in a reliable way. Implementing focused ultrasound examinations to assess volume status by nurses in an outpatient heart failure clinic may improve diagnostics, and thus improve therapy.
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Eur J Cardiovasc Nurs · Aug 2015
The mutual association between depressive symptoms and dyspnea in Chinese patients with chronic heart failure.
Depressive symptoms are prevalent in patients with chronic heart failure, but information about the relationship between depressive symptoms and dyspnea in chronic heart failure patients is limited. ⋯ In Chinese patients with chronic heart failure, the prevalence for both depressive symptoms and dyspnea is high and depressive symptoms and dyspnea are related to each other. Our results implicate that managing depressive symptoms and dyspnea appropriately is of great importance to patients with chronic heart failure.