Making Best Practice, Every Day Practice
This resource is fully searchable using the search box at the top of the page, or to narrow down your selection using filters click on 'Knowledge hub' in the main navigation.
Here you will find:
More than 500 articles especially written by colleagues to support your care of patients with the cardiovascular diseases commonly seen in primary care.
Articles on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cardiovascular conditions such as:
…and more.
Simple and informative infographics which will answer questions such as “How do these drugs work?”, “What causes this heart condition?” and much more.
Well, how fast things change! The latest figures show that a massive proportion of practice nurses and nurse practitioners are going to retire in the next few years—me included, I guess. I am very aware that this exodus is already starting to have an impact on primary care, as I am receiving requests for advice from brand-new practice nurses, who may be established nurses but are not general-practice prepared. This is scaring me and should frighten everyone else.
Remote monitoring is an emerging model of care in heart failure (HF) which has been shown to be clinically beneficial. In this study, patients were recruited to a new telemonitoring programme after referral to a community HF service. Following enrolment, there was a 58% reduction in the risk of HF admissions (0.71 vs. 0.30 per year, p<0.001). During the programme patients received, on average, nine home visits, eight telephone calls and three clinic appointments per person per year.
I looked through the topics in this issue of the journal and thought: wow, so many ways to kill ourselves younger than we really intended! I had also just heard a programme on the radio about the perils of alcohol consumption, especially in ladies ‘just like me’, and wondered if I should ever have a meal, a drink or sex again—it all sounded so risky.
Most people now survive a first stroke, but many patients are left with significant disability. In this article, our very own BATman ‘goes through rehab’ to review recently published NICE guideline. This aims to ensure that all stroke survivors have access to effective, individualised rehabilitation, both in the hospital and during long-term follow-up in the community.
It has become increasingly clear that many people in this country are putting themselves at risk because they are continuing to drink above their recommended weekly units. Most of these people are not drunk drivers in police cells or antisocial drinkers arriving at A&E departments on Saturday night. They are people who come to see us at our chronic disease clinics or for treatment for an acute illness. The inclusion of questions about alcohol in NHS Health Checks is the ideal opportunity to discuss the potential risks of excessive drinking, and this special issue explains how we can help patients to choose a healthier approach to alcohol.
GPs, practice nurses and other primary healthcare professionals are now at the frontline of managing cardiovascular disease (CVD) and delivering preventive care. The aim of this study was to explore clinicians’ experiences and their views on the factors that influence their ability to fulfilthis demanding role. GPs and other primary healthcare professionals expressed similar views. In particular, they reported a sense of pressure and disempowerment, and voiced concerns about the ability of general practice to take on its greater role in reducing the burden of CVD.
Identifying those people at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) who might benefit from a therapeutic intervention or lifestyle advice is an important challenge. We summarise here the performance of QRISK2 against the NICE version of the Framingham Risk Score.
Heart failure (HF) imposes a significant burden across the UK, both for patients and the NHS. Optimal management of HF could improve patient outcomes and reduce costs for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). HF is, however, complex to manage, and despite recent improvements there is evidence of a continuing lack of adherence to guideline recommendations. Enhance HF™ is a tool that supports GPs in optimising the management of HF due to left-ventricular systolic dysfunction to help deliver more costeffective care for patients in their practice.
People with schizophrenia have substantial premature mortality compared to individuals without schizophrenia. They also have a wide range of co-morbidities and multiple physical health conditions but are less likely than people without schizophrenia to have a primary care record of cardiovascular disease. This suggests a systematic underrecognition and under-treatment of cardiovascular disease, which may contribute to the increased mortality seen in this vulnerable patient group.
We highlight in this article some of the issues on HIV and cardiovascular disease (CVD) to assist primary healthcare practitioners to improve the health outcomes, particularly in relation to CVD, of their HIV patients.
The number of deaths each year from cardiovascular disease (CVD) has nearly halved in the UK since the early 1980s. There are many reasons for this success, but 25%-50% of the decline in deaths from coronary heart disease (CHD) can be attributed to secondary prevention in high-risk patients. However, despite the hard work of GPs […]
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