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.
As practice nurses, our day at the surgery ends well when everything has gone smoothly and patients and colleagues have gone home happy. But we often feel the greatest sense of achievement when we have had to go beyond our usual routine to try a new approach to a problem, or do something that we never thought we could do.
Controlling heart rate is a key element of good care of patients with angina or heart failure. In this article we explore the benefit of effective heart rate control to reduce hospitalisation and alleviate symptoms. Measuring heart rate is simple, and can provide valuable benefits for many patients.
Like falling off a cliff’ or ‘falling into a black hole’. This is how stroke survivors and their carers often describe discharge from hospital back to their own home. Recognising this issue, the National Stroke Strategy recommended planned reviews to identify unmet needs for health and social care, and secondary prevention. This article discusses tools designed to help professionals to review the evolving needs of stroke survivors and their families.
The management of AF is one of the most rapidly evolving areas of primary care today. How will these changes alter management in the coming months?
Dr Frances Akinwunmi
Consultant Pharmacist (Anticoagulation), Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Professor David Fitzmaurice
Professor of Primary Care, University of Birmingham
Dr Matthew Fay
GP and National Clinical Lead for Atrial Fibrillation, Westcliffe Medical Centre, Shipley
Spring has now well and truly sprung and the NHS is heading towards changes as the Health and Social Care Bill takes effect. But what won’t change is the need for primary care to do our very best to prevent, diagnose and treat cardiovascular disease and diabetes, as major causes of illness and premature death. At BJPCN we aim to equip you with the latest practical guidance and our conference in November will also help to keep you up to date, please come if you can.
This second article focuses on safe and effective prescribing of medications which will reduce risk of further cardiovascular events. This series provides a ‘hands on’ practical guide to conducting medication reviews of long-term cardiovascular conditions. In this issue, we look at how to ensure post-myocardial infarction patients are taking the right medications at the right doses to ensure they get maximum benefit.
Many patients presenting in general practice will, at some time, complain of tiredness and lack of energy. Investigations to discover the cause are often conducted and will usually include blood tests such as a full blood count to see if anaemia is to blame. Patients may assume that all anaemia is iron deficiency anaemia but there are, of course, different types of anaemia. Interpreting investigations correctly and acting on them appropriately can ensure that the patient gets the right diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
The start of a new year is always a good time to look forward to where we hope to go; but it is also to reflect on where we have come from. While the NHS has made massive improvements in the quality of life and outcomes of our patients. Our aspirations are even higher. Our objective over the coming year is to ensure that BJPCN gives you the information and inspiration to meet these challenges and to reach for even greater heights.
Following a stroke up to 60% of people have sight problems, including loss of visual field and trouble with visual processing when the brain no longer makes sense of what the eye sees. Changes to vision can also be a sign of stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA). The awareness of visual problems in stroke patients is highlighted in this article which explains the different sight problems and outlines steps which can be taken to help.
It’s good to talk. Communicating effectively with our patients and their families is a key part of our jobs as primary care nurses and we have a major new communication job on our hands over the next few months. The new guideline from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence makes ambulatory monitoring part of routine practice for diagnosing high blood pressure (BP), so we are going to need to explain to patients why we are sending them home with monitors rather than just taking BP readings in the practice.
Heart failure is characterised by fatigue, breathlessness and retention of fluid. The update of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence chronic heart failure guidelines has simplified its management by using a stepped approach to investigation and treatment. In this article, we focus on the practical aspects of managing the two main symptoms associated with heart failure – oedema and breathlessness.
Transient ischaemic attack (TIA) is a powerful warning sign of an impending, and potentially disabling, stroke. It is important to understand differences between stroke and TIA, how the FAST test can help you recognise the signs, and the use of the ABCD2 score to assess the level of stroke risk. Treating TIAs as emergencies is critically important in preventing a full stroke so urgent referral to your local TIA service is best practice.
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