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.
Heart failure affects around three in every hundred people aged 65 to 74 years, and increases with age. About 40% of patients with heart failure will die within one year of diagnosis, underlining the need for prompt diagnosis and effective therapy. In this article we explore what goes wrong in heart failure, and how cardiac resynchronisation can help.
Depression after myocardial infarction (MI) is extremely common, affecting almost half of all patients. The combination of MI and depression reduces the chance of recovery and makes it much more likely that patients will have another cardiac event. Depressed patients are also less likely to get back to work and they use health services more than those who are not depressed. We carried out a survey to investigate the perceptions, attitudes and skills of primary care practitioners in recognising and treating depression in patients following an MI to explore how this important co-morbidity is managed in practice. Readers of the British Journal of Primary Care Nursing (BJPCN) were invited to participate in an online survey, together with readers of the Primary Care Cardiovascular Journal. The survey results show that although primary healthcare practitioners realise that depression after MI is a significant problem, many underestimate quite how common it is and have received little or no training in recognising or managing depression.
An international perspective on cardiovascular risk management: recommendations for high-risk patientsD Duhot, E McGregor, Diana Gorog, C Packard
Refractory angina affects approximately 5-10% of patients with angina. Sufferers are significantly disabled by their symptoms, which are made worse by fears about what is happening to them. They are frequent attenders in GP surgeries, hospital outpatient departments and emergency admissions units. Patients who take part in an Angina Management Programme (AMP) that provides education, stress management and relaxation feel better, live longer and are able to avoid unnecessary invasive tests and palliative revascularisation procedures. AMPs can be effectively commissioned and delivered in primary care.
Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) often begins in childhood or early adulthood. In this review, a patient describes her experience of coping with episodes of SVT and the experience of undergoing cardiac ablation and subsequently having a pacemaker fitted.
What would you wish for to improve the management of patients with cardiovascular disease and diabetes? We asked each of the Clinical Directors, who lead the NHS for these conditions nationally: “Right now, if I had one wish, and it could ensure that every primary care nurse did one thing in diabetes / stroke / kidney / cardiac care it would be …” Read what they told us:
Welcome to the latest issue of BJPCN, which we hope you will see as a bunch of spring flowers, offering a bouquet of delights to cheer you on your way to meeting the challenges of providing the best care for patients with cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
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