Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, yet many women do not realize that this is the case. There are many misconceptions and a general lack of understanding in relation to women and heart disease. Nurses can work to bridge the gap between the evidence and the women who don’t understand that they are at risk. Nurses can help to teach women the signs and symptoms of coronary heart disease. The job of the nurse is to help assess, educate, and refer women to the necessary health care professionals to get the treatment that they need.
Many women don’t realize it, but coronary heart disease is the number one cause of death and disability for women in the United States who are over the age of 50. The media has tried to bring a lot of attention to this fact, but many women still believe that they need to be elderly to have this problem, and this just is not the case. Too many women still believe that heart disease is a man’s disease, and this is just not the case. Through nursing women can learn that you can develop heart disease at any age, and the sooner you are treated the better your prognosis will be. The bottom line is that a woman who is not educated about coronary heart disease is more likely to die than a woman who is. In fact, women who are not educated about heart disease account for 500,000 deaths in the United States per year.
Studies have found that nurses can take a central role in the positive prognosis for a woman. Nurses can help to share information about heart disease and can also assist women in identifying signs and symptoms, as well as help women develop strategies to initiate behavioral changes that will lead to the betterment of their heart and even save their lives.
Nurses are often the point of contact in the healthcare setting, as they interact with women more than any other healthcare provider. Having a nurse share this information will be a lot more meaningful, especially because women who are complaining of symptoms are often treated much less urgently than men with the same or similar cardiac symptoms. The idea is that nurses really need to take a leadership role, working to educate the public and help to identify women who are at risk of developing coronary heart disease. Nurses are the go between, the educators, and the advocates that women need to identify their risk and seek appropriate treatment.
