Cardiac Dysrhythmias : Medical Careers

Supraventricular tachycardia or SVT is a heart condition where the sufferer’s heart beats very fast for reasons such as exercise, high fever, caffeine or stress. For the majority of people who have supraventricular tachycardia, the heart still works as normal where it pumps blood across the body. During an episode of supraventricular tachycardia, the heart's electrical system doesn't work properly, causing the heart to beat very fast. The heart will beat at least 100 beats per minute and may reach up to 300 beats per minute. After medical treatment or treatment of its own, the heart will usually return to a normal rate of around 60 to 100 beats per minute. Supraventricular Tachycardia may start suddenly and then end suddenly, and you may not

Next we help patients into bed. After gaining consent, we help them wash and get into their night clothes. If they need toiletting, the patient’s preferred way of doing so is used. The Dignity Policy is maintained at all times. If it is documented that a patient needs more than one member of staff to transfer them safely then we help each other to do so., thus sticking to Health and Safety and Manual Handling Policies. Usually at this time the trained nurses are available and are easily approachable and willing to help. After the patient is safely and comfortably in bed, we fill in the repositioning and personal hygiene charts as per Policy.

Cardiac movement or pulsations are not usually visible in well-built patients and will be visible in a frail, elderly patient. However, discernable pulsations or newly developed movements may suggest cardiomegaly, hypertrophy, or valvular problems. Marked cardiac pulsations are evident in thyrotoxicosis and hypertension also. For cardiac auscultation to be effective, remember to provide a quiet environment as possible. Although this is difficult, close your eyes to block any visual stimuli and focus on the sound heard. Make sure that there is direct contact with the skin, diaphragm firmly pressed against the skin for high-frequency sounds, and bell lightly against the chest for low-frequency sounds. Listen to one sound at a time and compare the characteristic of this sound in the different areas. Auscultate five areas using the diaphragm, and then with bell of the stethoscope (see Figure 3-2). In an ICU setting, the best position to auscultate is supine and left lateral because left lateral will bring ventricles close to the chest wall. See Table 3-4 for descriptions of the heart sounds ( Murray & White, 1999). Evaluation of the pulses is an important in ICU assessment. Palpation of the most distal pulse, the dorsal pedis pulse, can give an understanding about both cardiac contractility (diminished bilateral pedal) and diminished arterial flow to that limb

• Your blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, and blood oxygen level will be monitored often until the medicines you were given have worn

Bradycardia can be categorized into three different types of pillars. Firstly, sinus bradycardia is when there is an unusual, slow heartbeat due to heart disease; which is usually a reaction to medication, or normal causes (e. fitness or relaxation). Secondly, sick sinus syndrome is an unusual, slow heartbeat due to a malfunction of the heart’s natural pacemaker. Thirdly,

Brady Arrhythmias is any disruption of cardiac rhythm resulting in 60 heartbeats per minute or less. However, it should be noted that 60 BPM is normal heart rate for young adults and athletes. There are multiple possible causes including heart tissue damage, hypothyroidism and inflammatory diseases: Risk for Brady Arrhythmia increases due to age, smoking and high blood pressure. Effects include fainting or feeling faint, fatigue and chest pains. Treatment depends on the severity of symptoms ranging from medications to implanting a pacemaker to monitor heart rate and generate electrical impulses to stimulate a proper heartrate.

The SA node is the primary pacemaker of the heart. It starts the heartbeat by spontaneously contracting, causing the rest of the heart to contract in a wave.

Monitoring of the vital signs should be closely monitored (pulse, blood pressure, respiration and pulse oximetry

The average heart beat is around 60 to 100 times a minute in a full grown adult. If you have Bradycardia your heart beats even less than 60 a minute and in a really physically fit person the heart rate can go as low as 30 beats per minute and have no ill side effects, but if its occurs less healthy persons it can be a signal that something is wrong with the heart. Some of the symptoms can be loss of consciousness, heart failure, or even death. Sick sinus is a problem with the sinus node, or the hearts natural pacemaker. If the pacemaker is functional and working as it should bradycardia may be caused by scaring near the sinus node, which can mess with the movement of electrical impulses. Conduction block; a block of electrical path ways of the heart. This happens around the atrioventricular node, located on the pathways between the atria and the ventricles, or the block may be along the path way to other ventricals. When this occurs when this occurs electrical impulses between the lower and upper parts of the heart may be slowed or completely stopped, depending on the type of block and where it is. Sometimes other disorder, such as hypothyroidism causes bradycardia, treatment of the disorder may correct bradycardia. Some other treatments for other heart issues can some times be the cause of Bradycardia, in which case your doctor would review your

These can alert a nurse if the patient is at risk for heart problems. “Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and major cause of disability in the United States” (Wilson 233). If a patient seeks a medical check-up due to chest pain, difficult breathing, extreme tiredness, pain in the lower extremities or cramping, collecting all the subjective data is necessary. After collecting the subjective data the nurse must also collect the objective data. Listening to the heart, taking their blood pressure can help with the diagnostic process.If a nurse is able to detect any abnormalities a patient has a higher chance of living a longer

The cardiac cycle is associated with the blood flow through the heart (Saladin, 2015). The heart rate is a term describing the regularity of the cardiac cycle (Marieb,2007). The heart rate is the amount of times it contracts or also known as beats in a unit of time, nearly always per minute. The normal pulse rate for healthy adults ranges from 60-100 bpm(beats per minute), approximately the adult heart rate regulates 75 bpm but this varies from person to person (Saladin, 2015). The heart rate generally slows down through childhood, as you develop (MacGill, 2015). Abnormal heart rates have medical names and harmless for some (MacGill, 2015). Tachycardia refers to the heart beating too fast at rest being over 100 beats per minute and Bradycardia refers to the heart beating too slow, usually below 60 beats per minute ( MacGill, 2015). The nervous system monitors the body and signals your heart to beat faster in response to increased activity. The normal heart rate undergoes healthy variation, going up in response to some conditions, including exercise, body temperature, body position, and emotion (MacGill, 2015). The blood is rushing around the heart to get rid of deoxygenated blood and carries back oxygenated blood from the lungs (Saladin, 2015) Sounds heard in the cardiovascular system result from the turbulent blood flow (Marieb, 2007). Two sounds can be heard during each cardiac cycle; these sounds are commonly known as "lub" and "dub". The sequence is

The nurse should include in her plan of care monitoring of patient’s daily weight, vitals, measuring and recording the patient’s input, output, and urine specific gravity. The nurse should assess for edema, assess skin color, turgor, mucous membrane, temperature, muscle strength, decreased deep tendon reflexes and monitor serum electrolytes, osmolality, and ABGs as order. The nurse should also maintain safety and seizure precaution and include patient teaching on avoiding food high in sodium and maintaining adequate hydration to prevent hypernatremia (Sommers,

Heart arrhythmia is a term that refers to a large number of conditions that are caused by abnormal electrical activity within the heart's nodes or sections.

The patient's ankles also need to be exposed at this point. In addition it is suggested that Nurses need also to remember to keep the patient's lower half covered as much as possible and treat the patient with the utmost respect at all times (Dougherty and Mallet, 2000).

This then helps to emphasise the importance of vital signs in contemporary nursing practice as ‘better monitoring of patients implies better care’ for this reason it is the nurses responsibility to ensure accuracy of the data, interpret the vital signs findings and to report any abnormalities (Lynn, 2008 ; Kyriacos et al, 2011 p.3225). This also builds the nurses core skill set and offers the earliest information of a patient at risk of deterioration, which helps to prevent deaths or further health complications (Boulanger, 2009).