I have selected the heart failure condition since I have got interest in learning more about it and have a better understanding of how to provide the required care to patients with this condition.
Heart failure is a cardiac condition that occurs when muscles responsible for pumping blood out of the heart are not strong enough to perform this function. The main reasons that may cause the heart not perform its function well include; the coronary arteries are not being wide enough thereby making the heart weak in terms of pumping blood efficiently. Alternatively, the heart cannot fill with sufficient blood to be pumped to body tissues (Mayo Clinic, 2016). The risk factors for this condition are basically diseases that cause damage to the heart including; hypertension where the heart strains when pumping blood, heart attack which results in damaged heart muscles thus compromising the heart’s abilities to pump blood, coronary artery disease which leads to narrowing of coronary arteries and diabetes which increase the risks of developing hypertension and coronary artery illnesses.
The fact that patients who have this condition go through difficulties when under heavy heart failure attack in terms of the pain and loss of consciousness makes me scared of providing the required care to them. As such, this factor is likely to affect the effectiveness with which I provide my services to this group of patients.
Several effects of this disorder are likely to affect the family unit. First, the emotional distress on relatives to such patients will increase since one of them is in pains. Secondly, the costs of treating and managing this condition may have a profound effect on the family members’ financial capabilities (Mayo Clinic, 2016). Lastly, a patient with this condition may be the family provider and in the event that he/she is put down by the disease, their families will definitely experience problems in their daily lives.
Heart failure can be prevented if the correct measures are taken in advance. There is the need for persons to involve in constant screening to prevent the possibilities of being affected by the condition. Secondly, nurses are tasked with involving communities in health promotion programs for educating people about healthy living. Such educational programs are aimed at making individuals be wary of the risk factors likely to predispose them to these diseases and the correct preventive measures they can undertake to stay healthy (Raczynski, & DiClemente, 2013). Additionally, people need to be educated about the required lifestyle changes like smoking cessation and also stopping taking alcohol as ways of addressing this condition.
In the event that there are multiple cases of the disease reported in the hospital, it means that the prevalence rates of the condition are high within the locality. As such, there is the need for policy changes by the state health department to make sure that every hospital in the region sets up a special department to specifically address the condition. These departments will be crucial in providing quality care to heart failure conditions. Additionally, there is the need for more heart specialists to be hired by such hospitals to deal with the disease. Finally, to adequately address the condition in the locality, it will be vital that family members are also involved in health promotional programs to determine whether such families have got histories of the disease and the appropriate measures they need to take to avert the condition.
References
Mayo Clinic. (2016). Heart failure - Mayo Clinic. Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-failure/basics/definition/con-20029801
Raczynski, J. M., & DiClemente, R. J. (Eds.). (2013). Handbook of health promotion and disease prevention. Springer Science & Business Media.
