Cardiac Exam Study Help!

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Hello all,

I have a huge cardiac exam (HTN, CHF, PAD/PVD, EKG's, dysrhythmias etc) coming up pretty soon. Does anyone have any study tips, hints, or advice that is specific to this content? (such as medications, lab values, and electrolytes) Particularly those three. . . Anything cardiac related.

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

hi, jessalynn! welcome to allnurses. let's see if i can help you here.

go to this web page on labtests on line http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/conditions/heart-2.html . at the bottom of the page where it says "related pages" it lists the tests commonly associated with heart conditions. those are the tests you want to look up at this site for information on them. in fact, each one is a link to the section about that test. many are several pages long and include more links to other information. this site will also have links to other outside web sites that will pertain to any medical condition you are researching. you should also be able to find information about electrolytes at this site.

http://www.fpnotebook.com/search.asp?qu=heart+disease&ct=d%3a%5cusers%5csmoses%5cdb - this will link you to a page of links on various cardiac conditions. linking into them will give you an outline sketch of the disease, the signs, how it is determined, testing, diagnosis, treatment, management, and complications. now, this is from the physicians perspective, but it is important for nurses to know this as well. it gives you a good guideline of what you need to be knowing about the various heart diseases and how they are diagnosed and treated in a nutshell. you can also search for specific diseases using their search feature.

here is where you can find information on cardiac medications. http://heart.healthcentersonline.com/drugsmedicationscenter.cfm . these are links into more extensive information. make sure you read down an entire page before being quick to click on a link because they do list the medications included in the various categories. this massive site is mostly geared to patients, but also has information for professionals and has some wonderful pictures and videos. it has companion sites for diabetes, cancer and allergies.

to look up drugs use http://www.drugs.com/ - i like this better than any of the other drug sites for looking up drug information as well as http://www.drugstore.com/pharmacy/drugchecker/ for checking on drug interactions.

i have plenty of stuff on ekgs, but you didn't sound like that is what you are looking for. however, if you also want that information, let me know and i'll list some sites for you. in fact, let me give you the cyberheart site http://www.gwc.maricopa.edu/class/bio202/cyberheart/cardio.htm it has a tutorial for basic heart anatomy, physiology and ekgs. it was done by professor crimando at gateway community college in phoenix, az. i think it's one of the easiest, best explanations of the electrical pathway i have seen yet (and i worked on a stepdown and read telemetry).

i strongly recommend that you use http://www.medlineplus.gov/ they have tutorials, videos and all kinds of stuff on this massive website. when you do a search for a particular disease, you will get a return of links that will often be quite informative and a lot more efficient than surfing the web when you are in a hurry.

hope you find these helpful for your studies this weekend. if you're looking for other than what i've directed you to, just post a reply to this and i'll check later. we're off to get pizza for now!

Specializes in Med Surg/Tele/ER.

I had my cardiac test a few weeks ago, & there is just so much to know. I used Saunders in addition to my textbook, & notes. Labs... CK-MB, Troponin T&I, Myoglobin,Meds... ACE inhibitors, Beta-Adrenergic blockers, Calcium channel blockers, Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa Inhibitors. Hope that helps.

Specializes in Labor and Delivery, Homecare.

i'm in the same boat. my test is monday and i'm freakin out. there's like 50+pages of just the syllabus to know + book and stuff....i dont think anything is sticking!!

Specializes in med surg.

Daytonite

I would be interested in EKG sites if you could please post them. I am new to staff development and am looking for info.

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
daytonite

i would be interested in ekg sites if you could please post them. i am new to staff development and am looking for info.

i'm probably going to be sorry for posting this publicly and taking all the mystery out of how i come up with websites so fast, but i'll make an exception for a staff development person.

anything with three asterisks next to it is a site that i think is particularly excellent, or that i tend to post on messages a lot. i can't verify that all the links work or are correct as i have not gone through and checked them all out lately. also, they are not in any particular order. hope you find some helpful stuff there. i just added a couple of new sites in the last day or two.

these are links i have on the anatomy of the heart. i can also give you some links to some very good sites for learning heart and lung sounds if you like:

http://medstat.med.utah.edu/kw/pharm/ - the hyper heart – an animated tutorial of the flow of blood through the heart (click on the play button to see this animation). there are links in a drop down menu toward the left bottom of the animation page that lead you to pages explaining each one of the phases

http://heart.healthcentersonline.com/bloodclot/ - this site has a very nice animated encyclopedia that includes a video presentation with sound on the conduction system of the heart along with other procedures and conditions of the heart including pulmonary embolism and coronary angiography. this is from heart center online.

http://www.tmc.edu/thi/anatomy.html - anatomy of the human heart from the texas heart institute – includes information on the heartbeat, heart valves, the conduction system, the coronary arteries and the circulatory system

http://www.heartinfo.org/ - this is a wonderful site that has all kinds of information about the heart and heart conditions. information, patient teaching and illustrations and some videos of heart problems. check out the links on the left side of the pages. they have the latest videos on the heart diabetes, stroke, angioplasty, clogged arteries, blood clots and more.

EKGs.doc

Specializes in Labor and Delivery, Homecare.

oooohhhhhhh wow....VERY nice!!! Thank you!!!

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