Defining optimal left ventricular assist device short-term outcomes may provide insight into programmatic quality assessment.

Background: Patients have substantial variability in perioperative outcomes after left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implant. A perioperative multidimensional tool integrating mortality, adverse events (AEs), and patient-reported outcomes to assist in quality improvement initiatives is needed.

Methods: Patients undergoing HeartMate 3 LVAD implant (January 1, 2017 to January 31, 2024) in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons' Intermacs registry were studied.

Appropriateness and outcomes of hospitalized patients telemetry monitored for cardiac arrhythmias in accordance with the American Heart Association Practice Standards-A multicenter study.

Background: To the best of our knowledge, no prospective research studies have compared clinical practice to the American Heart Association (AHA) updated practice standards for in-hospital telemetry monitoring.

Objectives: Our aims were therefore (1) to investigate how patients were assigned to telemetry monitoring in accordance with the AHA's updated practice standards, (2) to determine the number and type of arrhythmic events, and (3) to describe subsequent changes in clinical management.

Methods: This prospective multicenter study included 1154 patients at three university hospitals in Norway.

Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients With Ventricular Assist Device: Psychometric Evaluation of the German Version of the Quality of Life With a Ventricular Assist Device Questionnaire.

Background: Ventricular assist device (VAD) implantation has become an alternative treatment for patients with end-stage heart failure. In Germany, valid and reliable instruments to assess health-related quality of life in patients with VAD are lacking.

Objective: The aim of this study was to present the psychometric validation of the German version of the Quality of Life with a Ventricular Assist Device questionnaire.

The patient experience of in-hospital telemetry monitoring: a qualitative analysis.

Aims: In-hospital telemetry monitoring has been an integrated part of arrhythmia monitoring for decades. A substantial proportion of patients require arrhythmia monitoring during stays in non-intensive care units. However, studies exploring patients' experiences of telemetry monitoring are scarce.

Orthostatic Hypotension: Management of a Complex, But Common, Medical Problem.

Orthostatic hypotension (OH), a common, often overlooked, disorder with many causes, is associated with debilitating symptoms, falls, syncope, cognitive impairment, and risk of death. Chronic OH, a cardinal sign of autonomic dysfunction, increases with advancing age and is commonly associated with neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases, diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, and kidney failure. Management typically involves a multidisciplinary, patient-centered, approach to arrive at an appropriate underlying diagnosis that is causing OH, treating accompanying conditions, and providing individually tailored pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatment.

Stimulant Drugs of Abuse and Cardiac Arrhythmias.

Nonmedical use of prescription and nonprescription drugs is a worldwide epidemic, rapidly growing in magnitude with deaths because of overdose and chronic use. A vast majority of these drugs are stimulants that have various effects on the cardiovascular system including the cardiac rhythm. Drugs, like cocaine and methamphetamine, have measured effects on the conduction system and through several direct and indirect pathways, utilizing multiple second messenger systems, change the structural and electrical substrate of the heart, thereby promoting cardiac dysrhythmias.

Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients With a Left Ventricular Assist Device (QOLVAD) Questionnaire: Initial Psychometrics of a New Instrument.

Background: Patients with a left ventricular assist device are a unique and growing population who deserve their own valid, reliable instrument for health-related quality of life.

Objective: We developed and tested the Health-Related Quality of Life with a Left Ventricular Assist Device (QOLVAD) questionnaire.

Methods: In a prospective, descriptive study, patients from 7 sites completed the QOLVAD and comparator questionnaires.

Guidance for cardiac electrophysiology during the COVID-19 pandemic from the Heart Rhythm Society COVID-19 Task Force; Electrophysiology Section of the American College of Cardiology; and the Electrocardiography and Arrhythmias Committee of the Council on Clinical Cardiology, American Heart Association.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic that is wreaking havoc on the health and economy of much of human civilization. Electrophysiologists have been impacted personally and professionally by this global catastrophe. In this joint article from representatives of the Heart Rhythm Society, the American College of Cardiology, and the American Heart Association, we identify the potential risks of exposure to patients, allied healthcare staff, industry representatives, and hospital administrators.

Implementing Practice Standards for Inpatient Electrocardiographic Monitoring.

Background: Although electrocardiographic monitoring is common in hospitalized patients, many patients receive unnecessary monitoring, contributing to patients' inconvenience, clinicians' alarm fatigue, and delayed admissions.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of implementation of an electronic order set based on the American Heart Association practice standards for electrocardiographic monitoring on the occurrence of appropriate monitoring.

Methods: The sample for this preintervention-to-postintervention quasi-experimental study consisted of 297 adult patients on medical, surgical, neurological, oncological, and orthopedic patient care units that used remote electrocardiographic monitoring in a 627-bed hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Update to Practice Standards for Electrocardiographic Monitoring in Hospital Settings: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

Background And Purpose: This scientific statement provides an interprofessional, comprehensive review of evidence and recommendations for indications, duration, and implementation of continuous electro cardiographic monitoring of hospitalized patients. Since the original practice standards were published in 2004, new issues have emerged that need to be addressed: overuse of arrhythmia monitoring among a variety of patient populations, appropriate use of ischemia and QT-interval monitoring among select populations, alarm management, and documentation in electronic health records.

Methods: Authors were commissioned by the American Heart Association and included experts from general cardiology, electrophysiology (adult and pediatric), and interventional cardiology, as well as a hospitalist and experts in alarm management.

Computer-assisted interventions to improve QTc documentation in patients receiving QT-prolonging drugs.

Background: Many medications commonly used in hospitals can cause prolonged corrected QT interval (QTc), putting patients at risk for torsade de pointes (TdP), a potentially fatal arrhythmia. However, documentation of QTc for hospitalized patients receiving QT-prolonging medications is often not consistent with American Heart Association standards.

Objective: To examine effects of education and computerized documentation enhancements on QTc documentation.

A conceptual definition of quality of life with a left ventricular assist device: results from a qualitative study.

Objective: To develop a conceptual definition of quality of life (QoL) with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD).

Background: Conceptual and operational definitions of QoL with an LVAD are lacking.

Methods: A grounded theory method was used.

Competency of new graduate nurses: a review of their weaknesses and strategies for success.

Because of the ongoing nursing shortage and the increasing acuity of patients, new graduate nurses must master both psychomotor and critical thinking skills rapidly. Inadequate orientation leads to high turnover rates for new graduates. Health care leaders must examine the competencies needed for new graduate nurses to succeed in this environment.

Use of the Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire among elderly patients with aortic stenosis: results from a pilot study.

Background: Past studies of health-related quality of life (HRQL) in aortic stenosis (AS) have focused on valve replacement, using generic or heart failure measures because no disease-specific measure exists. The literature is lacking in both performance of these measures among patients with AS and HRQL outcomes in the nonsurgical elderly AS population.

Objective: The aims of this study were to measure HRQL and test the reliability of the Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-being Scale (FACIT-Sp) in persons older than 70 years with AS receiving nonsurgical treatment.

Evidence-based practice models for organizational change: overview and practical applications.

Aim: To provide an overview, summary of key features and evaluation of usefulness of six evidence-based practice models frequently discussed in the literature.

Background: The variety of evidence-based practice models and frameworks, complex terminology and organizational culture challenges nurses in selecting the model that best fits their practice setting.

Data Sources: The authors: (1) initially identified models described in a predominant nursing text; (2) searched the literature through CINAHL from 1998 to current year, using combinations of 'evidence', 'evidence-based practice', 'models', 'nursing' and 'research'; (3) refined the list of selected models based on the initial literature review; and (4) conducted a second search of the literature on the selected models for all available years to locate both historical and recent articles on their use in nursing practice.

A practical communication strategy to improve implementation of evidence-based practice.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine if a consistent communication strategy for implementation of evidence-based practice (EBP), developed with input from staff nurses, improved staff nurse satisfaction with communication of practice changes.

Background: Integration of EBP knowledge into clinical practice supports optimal nursing care. Awareness of a practice change and the ability to reference the information may be problematic.

Effect of a preceptor education workshop: part 1. Quantitative results of a hospital-wide study.

Background: This study examined the hospital-wide effect of a mandatory 8-hour preceptor workshop on preceptors and orientees.

Methods: A mixed-methods approach (QUAN + qual) with a quasi-experimental design was used to test nurse preceptors' self-reported confidence and comfort (pre- to postworkshop) in five specific roles in addition to the frequency of coaching critical thinking and providing formal feedback. Additionally, survey items compared cross-sectional cohorts of preceptors and orientees pre- to postworkshop.

Effect of a preceptor education workshop: part 2. Qualitative results of a hospital-wide study.

Background: This study examined the hospital-wide effect of a mandatory 8-hour nurse preceptor workshop on preceptors and orientees.

Methods: A mixed-methods approach was used. The quantitative surveys were augmented with qualitative short-answer questions (QUAN + qual) to identify the perceptions of preceptorship experiences for both preceptors and orientees.