N Ur/427 Uop Personal Impact Paper

Living with a chronic debilitating disease is very challenging and the effects eventually will make an impact on an individual personally, emotionally, socially, and financially. Congestive heart failure (CHF) is one chronic disease that is progressive and difficult to manage. Patients diagnosed with congestive heart failure have a critical learning curve to maintain health and to manage and live with this disease. Physicians and nurses are in the frontline to providing patient education, which will interpret the degree of compliance by the patient. Heart failure begins when the heart is not able to pump blood efficiently out to the body. In left-sided heart failure, the heart muscle becomes weak and the ventricles do not eject adequate blood volume, leading to pulmonary edema. Cardiac output reduces and the metabolic demands of the body are not met. Right-sided heart failure results when the right ventricle does not provide sufficient cardiac output causing systemic congestion. Contractility diminishes because of causes such as cardiomyopathy, myocardial infarction, myocarditis, coronary artery disease, hypocalcemia, drug effects, or from receiving radiation therapy. Research results suggest that heart failure may be linked to genetic disposition, and occurs at any age or race (Sommers, 2011).
Heart failure stages are organized into a classification system that categorizes by symptoms exhibited by the patient. The New York Heart Association classifies heart failure into four classes. Class one has no limitations and no symptoms exhibited by the patient. Class two shows slight limitations with activity. Class three has fatigue with dyspnea or chest pain with limited physical activity. Class four is when symptoms occur at rest, and the patient is extremely limited to any activity (Sommers, 2011). The patient’s quality of life decreases as the classification number increases. Physical symptoms with the later stages of heart failure will exhibit