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Coronary Heart Disease

Posted on: Sunday, 18 September 2005, 03:01 CDT

READER'S PRACTICE PROFILE

Samantha Williams reviewed the risk factors for coronary heart disease after reading a continuing professional development article

I have improved my knowledge of coronary heart disease (CHD) and I am now better able to educate patients, as a result of reading this article.

I was aware that smoking, abnormal cholesterol levels, and diabetes were risk factors for CHD, but hypertension, abdominal obesity and lack of fruit and vegetables in the diet are of greater importance than I had realised. Although it may be impossible to eradicate some of these risk factors, keeping them controlled is important.

I found the information on weight loss and dietary advice helpful. Many patients ask what they can eat and what they should avoid, and my advice until I read the article always focused on five servings of fruit or vegetables a day. I found the Heart UK diet sheet particularly useful as certain foods that I thought were healthy are not. I am now able to provide the correct information and advise patients to eat a much wider variety of healthy foods.

I learnt that statins can reduce low-density lipoprotein cholesterol by up to 60 per cent, and that the variety of cholesterol-reducing drugs is more extensive than I had thought. I can now provide comprehensive information to patients.

My initial thoughts after reading this article focused on finding a way of transferring the information to patients. I work in a cardiac catheter service, and only have a limited amount of time to talk with patients and provide health promotion and education. Therefore, I intend to tackle one risk factor at a time, and mount a display on the wall of the ward, beginning with healthy eating.

I now realise what an important role nurses have in providing potentially life-saving advice and offering support to patients.

I visited the cardiovascular risk website listed in the article to calculate my own risk of CHD. If this was more easily accessible on the wards it could be used for patients and might provide useful information.

I also intend to improve my knowledge and awareness of CHD, angina, myocardial infarction, hypertension and diabetes. I plan to attend a study day on angina and to spend time with the cardiac rehabilitation nurses who work in my hospital to increase my awareness of how people cope with the lifestyle changes that they have to make as a result of CHD

Write your own practice profile

You can gain a certificate of learning by reading a Nursing Standard continuing professional development article and writing a practice profile. Turn to page 58 for this week's article and on page 68 you can find out how to present and submit your practice profile. Downloadauthorguidelinesatwww.nursing-standard.co.uk by following the quick link on the home page.

Visit the RCN Learning Zone

The RCN Learning Zone is a FREE online service to help RCN members with their continuing professional development and professional portfolio management. Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the RCN Learning Zone is at www.rcn.org.uk/members/ learningzone.php

Samantba Williams is a staff nurse at Prince Philip Hospital, Llanelli

Copyright RCN Publishing Company Ltd. Aug 31-Sep 6, 2005

Source: Nursing Standard

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