Staff nurses knowledge and skills regarding management of patients with Myocardial Infarction and Angina

Abstract

Myocardial infarction is one of the most common coronary heart lesions referred to as an invisible epidemic in the 21st century. A nurse must have adequate knowledge regarding the underlying mechanisms, subtle and obvious signs and must also possess competency of the emergency management. Similarly patients with stable angina can be managed with lifestyle changes, especially smoking cessation and regular exercise, along with taking antianginal drugs. Randomized controlled trials show that antianginal drugs are equally effective and none of them reduced mortality or the risk of MI. In recent decades, the role of management of MI and Angina has been the focus of attention by the vast majority of professionals with nurse to be in the front line. The main goal of management of MI and Angina is to prompt patients participate in their therapeutic treatment regimen to such an extent that they can achieve living almost a normal life. Management of MI and Angina programs comprising prescriptive exercise, health education, and counseling, yield compelling improvements in cardiac morbidity and mortality of participants. Furthermore, detection, diagnosis and monitoring of psychological distress should be part of treatment since after admission patients frequently experience clinically significantly levels of anxiety or depression that may persist for long thus affecting the outcome of cardiac disease. Usually, health professionals fail to recognize psychological distress in patients with coronary artery disease because they perceive it as a normal reaction to the stressful event of acute myocardial infarction. As a result, symptoms are misdiagnosed as physical problems while the underlying cause remains. Education provided by the nurses to the patient is associated with increased patient satisfaction, lower levels of anxiety and depression, high levels of compliance to treatment, as well as improved quality of life not only for the patients but for their supporting environment.