Heart and Cardiovascular Nursing

Cardiovascular nurses, also called as cardiac nurses or vascular nurses, are registered nurses (RNs). Cardiac nursing is a nursing specialty deals with patients who suffer from various conditions of the cardiovascular system. Cardiac nurses help to treat illnesses of angina, heart failure, heart diseases, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, myocardial infarction and cardiac dysrhythmia under the supervision of a cardiologist.

• Cardiac nurses perform postoperative care, health assessments and treating patients, stress test evaluations, monitoring cardiac and vascular readings, educating patients and their families in altering their lifestyle.
• In addition, cardiac nurses must have expertise in  electrocardiogram monitoring, neurovascular observations, assessing signs of bleeding and diaphoresis, defibrillation, and medication administration by continuous intravenous drip

Cardiac Nurses may focus on cardiac rehabilitation—in which they counsel patients to change their lifestyle to prevent the worsening of their heart disease.

At present there is a high demand for cardiovascular clinical nurse specialists (CNS). Registered nursing is expected to grow 16 % through 2026 as per U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ current Occupational Outlook Handbook, which is much faster than average. With rapid advances in cardiac care technologies and changing lifestyle of mankind, opportunities in the field of Cardiac and cardiovascular nursing are growing exponentially.