Can anyone suggest any good Cardiac Study Guides?

Daytonite, BSN, RN · May 27, 2007

heart disease for dummies. cost is around $19.99. it presents the major heart related diseases. it is organized as well so that you get an idea of what the major heart problems are that are focused on in the clinical area: mi, strokes, heart failure, hypertension. you can fill in the more technical and nursing information from your nursing textbooks and resources. you can see what the table of contents of this book are on barnes and noble's website from a link posted with the page that describes the book and includes reviews on it. that will give you a direction of subjects to focus on without buying the book.

here are websites where you can search for more information about the various heart diseases:

medline plus (use the search box) http://www.medlineplus.gov/
family practice notebook (use search box) http://www.fpnotebook.com/index.htm
emedicine http://www.emedicine.com/ (you may have to register to view articles, but registration is free)
web md index list of medical conditions http://www.webmd.com/a_to_z_guide/health_topics.htm
http://heart.health.ivillage.com/

you will also find resources in the stickys on the critical care forums (https://allnurses.com/forums/f5/), especially if you are looking for information on ekgs and ekg interpretation. but just to get a bug in your ear and get you some direction to go on this, it all starts with your knowing the anatomy and physiology of the heart. you have to know how the electrical system works to understand arrhythmias and how the calcium-sodium pump works to understand how the various drugs affect the cardiac cells. you need to get a good understanding of heart failure. it often proceeds in a specific order and a good pathophysiology book should explain this. it may be complicated to you at first, but take your time going through it. understanding heart failure and the difference between preload and afterload goes a long way in also understanding why particular drugs work for these conditions. you may find some of this information presented in an easier to understand form in, of all places, a pharmacology textbook! i have one pharmacology website that has a whole webpage devoted to chf (congestive heart failure) http://www.pharmacology2000.com/special_topics/chf/chf1.htm. one book that i found that gave a very good explanation on heart failure was pathophysiology: a 2-in-1 reference for nurses published by lippincott williams and wilkins. there are two etiologies for strokes and their treatment depends on knowing which etiology is presenting itself.

when the heart muscle or heart cells begins to fail the result is often an alteration in cardiac output to some degree (hint, hint). the nursing diagnosis that gets used the most with cardiac related problems is decreased cardiac output, so you might want to look at all the defining characteristics (symptoms) and related factors (altered heart rate, altered rhythm, altered afterload, altered contractility, and altered preload) that have been assigned to this diagnosis by nanda. most care plan or nursing diagnosis books should have that information listed. if not, pm me and i'll send the defining characteristics to you (i've listed all the related factors above). many students shy away from using this diagnosis because they don't understand the pathophysiological concepts behind it. well, now you've got all summer to learn about them! have loads of fun!

welcome to allnurses! :welcome:

NurseBettyTX · May 28, 2007

I don't know where to begin to thank you Daytonite for your reply! You have given me so much great information, more than I ever expected. I just want you to know that it will go to good use!

It is people like you that make this forum the BEST there is !!!!

Thank you again.....:thankya: