Nurse-led heart failure clinic

[Obiwarz]

So I have this grand idea. As Heart Failure is the #1 hospital admission diagnosis (even more than pregnancies!), the need for HF management is there. The direction of our healthcare system is going toward preventative medicine as well.

In Sweden and some areas of the U.S, nurse-led HF clinics are decreasing hospital admissions, costs, and in effect deaths of those with unmanaged HF. My girlfriend is a nurse, her sister is a nurse, and I have friends that are rad techs, cardiac rehab personnel, and social workers. I was thinking... wouldn't it be a great idea to start a heart failure clinic run by nurses?

The only difficulty would be to have an NP or MD sign on for prescription management. As I am in an MSN program right now, I was thinking I might go the route of NP just so I could do something like this. I would love to own my own business and this seems like a really good idea. I have the people, the patients are out there, and healthcare needs this. Any ideas or thoughts? Anyone see HF clinics around in there area?

[dianah, ASN]

An awesome NP runs our HF clinic, under the umbrella of our Cardiology Dept.

Sounds like the need is certainly there!

Good luck to you!

[ghillbert, MSN, NP]

Seems like it's already going that way, I'm not sure what your new idea is? Tend to need to remain affiliated with a large hospital to refer patients for tests/further management. There is quite a bit of research about nurse-managed HF clinics and the improved outcomes, particularly with dietary and medication management.