Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Academic Term

Summer 2020

Document Type

Project

Course Number

NURS 6810

Course Name

Advanced Pathophysiology for the Advance Practiced Nurse

Professor’s Name

Dr. Butz and Dr. Chovan

Keywords

Infective Endocarditis, Pathophysiology, Nurse Anesthetist, Complications

Subject Categories

Medicine and Health Sciences | Nursing

Abstract

The proposed poster is an overview of the pathophysiology and nursing considerations for infective endocarditis. Infective endocarditis (IE) is an infection that affects the endothelium of the heart. While not a highly prevalent disease in the United States, it does have a significant mortality rate of up to 30% at 30 days after diagnosis despite many medical advancements to attempt to prevent and treat it. IE can cause multisystem organ dysfunction through complication of the disease or embolization of the vegetation.

The poster goes over several complications associated with IE and the evidence-based treatment of those complications. Several articles on pathophysiology, clinical course, and treatment were reviewed and summarized along with a review on best anesthetic strategies for successful surgical intervention.

The overwhelming treatment for IE includes an intravenous antibiotic regimen along with early surgical intervention to remove vegetations for surgical candidates. Specifically for nurse anesthetists, a focus on maintaining adequate cardiac output and decreasing valvular regurgitation is exceedingly important. This can be achieved through a maintaining a heart rate that has minimal diastolic time for regurgitation opportunity, decreasing stroke volume resistance, and increasing contractility lead to best outcomes and thirty day mortality rate in those affected by infective endocarditis.

Overall, understanding the pathophysiology behind both IE and the complications that arise from it prepares the advanced nurse practitioner to take care of a population that may not be large, but is certainly vulnerable to serious life-changing complications. The hope is that being knowledgeable about risk factors related to increased mortality will allow providers to be proactive in preventing them if possible.

Included in

Nursing Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.