For the purpose of this essay, the author will investigate the role of a registered nurse in the initial assessment and management of a patient with acute Myocardial Infarction (MI). This essay will further discuss the anatomy of the heart and how it functions; the pathophysiology and initial signs and symptoms of MI. To achieve this, the author has conducted literature review through using the following database: CINAHL, MEDLINE and INTERNURSE. These databases were chosen because they provide nursing journals and provide nurses with the best available and most recent clinical evidence. The first key word was acute myocardial infarction, second assessment and third management. Combined together three hundred and twenty three results came up on the database which was too much. To limit the search and to ensure that only most current and relevant database came out the author added year limit 2007 to 2012 and age groups which was adult getting twenty seven articles.
According to the code of professional conduct of nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), registered nurses have a responsibility to deliver care based on current evidence, best practice, and where applicable-validated research where available (NMC 2010). Nursing research’s interest has grown up and nurses have been encouraged to provide evidence based practice. Nurses has personal responsibility to remain updated on current best practice which include ability to critically appraise new research ( Cutcliffe &Ward 2007) According to Gerrish & Lacey (2010) nursing research is essential as it develop knowledge, influence nursing decision making with an intention of improving patient care, health outcome and public health.
Nursing research is essential for the development of new knowledge and mostly it enables nurses to provide evidence based health care. Evidence based nursing (EBP) is defined as clinical