Essay On Congestive Heart Failure

Heart failure may convey that the heart isn’t working anymore, but what it really means is that the heart isn’t pumping as well as it should be (REF). Heart failure is a chronic, progressive condition in which the heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood through to meet the body’s needs for blood and oxygen (REF). At first, the heart tries to make up for this by enlarging, developing more muscle mass, and pumping faster. As this happens, the blood vessels narrow to keep blood pressure up and the body diverts blood away from less important tissues and organs to maintain flow to the heart and brain (REF). Eventually, the body and heart cannot keep up and the patient begins to feel fatigue, breathing problems, weight gain with swelling in the feet, legs, ankles or stomach, and other symptoms that eventually leads to a hospital visit. The body’s coping mechanisms give us better understanding on why many are unaware of their condition until years after the heart declines (REF).

Congestive cardiac failure, also known as heart failure, occurs when the heart is weak and unable to sufficiently supply blood the body needs to function. Heart failure can often be successfully treated with

ECG: sinus tachycardia with waveform abnormalities consistent with LVH, Pronounced Q waves consistent with pulmonary edema.

Nearly 5.1 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with heart failure. Yet so many people don’t have a clue what it is until they have been diagnosed with it. Congestive Heart Failure, or CHF, is a disease that has many symptoms, can be tested and treated, has several causes, and can be avoided.

Congestive Heart Failure is when the heart's pumping power is weaker than normal. It does not mean the heart has stopped working. The blood moves through the heart and body at a slower rate, and pressure in the heart increases. This means; the heart cannot pump enough oxygen and nutrients to meet the body's needs. The chambers of the heart respond by stretching to hold more blood to pump through the body or by becoming more stiff and thickened. This only keeps the blood moving for a short while. The heart muscle walls weaken and are unable to pump as strongly. This makes the kidneys respond by causing the body to retain fluid and sodium. When the body builds up with fluids, it becomes congested. Many conditions can cause heart

Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) is a very common disease among the elderly. A healthy heart can pump blood to all parts of the body in a few seconds. When the heart is no longer able to do this, blood backs up into the lungs and other parts of

Congestive heart failure is an older name for heart failure. Congestive heart failure takes place when the heart is unable to maintain an adequate circulation of blood in the bodily tissues or to pump out the venous blood returned to it by the veins (Merriam-Webster). The heart is split into two distinct pumping structures, the right side of the heart and the left side of the heart. Appropriate cardiac performance involves each ventricle to extract even quantities of blood over intervals. If the volume of blood reimbursed to the heart develops more than both ventricles can manage, the heart can no longer be an efficient pump.

Our heart is a single organ, it acts as a double pump. Without our heart we wouldn’t be living, we need our heart every day, every hour, every minute and every second. The heart pump blood through out our body. The heart has four chambered muscular pumps. The heart weighs approximately 9 ounces. And, has consists of three linings layers. The side of the heart that is affected by congestive heart failure would be both, because the left side (left ventricular) supplies most of the heart pumping power so its-larger than other chambers. And the right side (right ventricular) the heart failure usually loose pumping power, blood backs up in the body’s veins. The fluid accumulate somewhere would go to deliver oxygen rich blood to the body. Diseases

I. Description: Congestive Heart Failure is more of a syndrome than a disease. Heart failure may be classified according to the side of the heart affected, (left- or right-sided failure), or by the cardiac cycle involved, (systolic or diastolic dysfunction). (Schilling-McCann p. 176). The word "failure" refers to the heart's inability to pump enough blood to meet the body's metabolic needs. (Schilling-McCann p. 176). When the heart fails to deliver adequate blood supply edema may develop. (Cadwallader p. 1141). Where edema occurs depends on what side of the heart is failing.

Diagnosed with Congestive cardiomyopathy implies that the patient’s heart muscle has been debilitated by ailment and cannot sufficiently pump blood through the heart, which can lead to heart failure (“Columbia University Medical Center”, 2016). In this case study, the current situation of a male patient Mr. P., who is 76 years old, and frequently hospitalized with CHF is given. The purpose of this paper is to describe an approach to care with treatment plan recommendation, provide education to both the patient and his family, and a teaching plan.

75-year-old patient with the diagnosis of Congestive Heart failure. These three questions would ask the student nurse; what should you do if you see that your patient is having shortness of breath, tachycardia, and sounds very congested? What would you do if you see that the patient’s weight increased 3 pounds since yesterday and has three plus edema on his ankles and feet? What would you do if your patient is very anxious and wanted to know what is wrong with him? By asking these three questions, the student nurse should be able to critically think and prepare herself. The student nurse would know the cause of the disease, the sign and symptoms of the disease, and what are the important steps to manage the patient with CHF like, apply oxygen if saturation is low, inform the doctor and administer the medicine prescribed

Patient R.M. is an eighty-year-old Caucasian male. His religion is Christian. R.M. was retired from work. He is a husband, father and grandfather per his wife. R.M. had no known allergies and is a full code status. He has a past medical history of diabetes, coronary artery disease, heart valve disease, atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure (HF), hypertension and kidney disease. His wife was at bedside attentive to his care. The diagnostic tests performed showed he had severe congestive heart failure and was in need of an arterial graft in his coronary arteries. The nurse on shift was Vivian and the doctor assigned to R.M. was Doctor Linton. The development level that R.M. falls in at eighty years old was integrity versus despair. He displayed the characteristics of being in the category of despair.

Heart failure describes the heart’s inability to function properly, meaning the heart is unable to pump efficiently throughout the body. Thus causing the heart to work extra hard in order to compensate the body’s needs, but this ultimately leads to failure. And due to Mrs. Harris’s hypertension and alcohol consumption, she is now displaying signs and symptoms of congestive heart failure, as both are major risk factors. Heart failure can be seen in the left side, which is also known as congestive heart failure, and the right side of heart. The left side is typically the first side to fail, as the left ventricle is the heart’s largest chamber and the most powerful.

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

Congestive heart failure is a chronic disease that requires daily monitoring and life style management. Affecting the elderly, and their family the adjustment is a challenge. Daily life skills include the monitoring of daily weights, intake and output, and a low sodium diet. The person with congestive heart failure is generally admitted to the hospital for medication adjustments when their symptoms increase. The patient is often times short of breath, with a decrease in energy and an increase in their weight. The patients are generally elderly 60-65 years of age or older, and when comparing African Americans to Caucasians the African Americans have a 1.5 greater chance of developing heart failure ("Heart Failure," 2017). The