A patient asks you how a prescribed diuretic can help heart failure. What is your best response?
a. Urinating more prevents heart failure from damaging your kidneys.
b. Diuretics reduce blood pressure so your heart won't have to work as hard.
c. Taking a diuretic reduces salt levels so you don't have to limit your intake of salty foods.
d. The diuretic counteracts the side effects of the other drugs prescribed for your heart failure.
Question 2
After giving the first dose of any antihypertensive drug for heart failure, what action must be taken for a hospitalized patient's safety?
a. Recheck the drug order for accuracy.
b. Ensure that the call light is within reach.
c. Place a wheelchair in the patient's room.
d. Raise all four side rails on the patient's bed.
Location of the heart within the mediastinum of the thoracic cavity.
Frequency distribution curve: interpatient variability in drug response
Caring for a patient on isolation precautions
Patient teaching: mouth and pharyngeal assessment
Desmosomes and gap junctions, as shown in heart muscle: Gap junctions
Hostility and Heart Disease