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Rosemary Theroux, Ph.D., RN, also is taking suggestions
from the association and talking to her female patients
in Massachusetts about heart health. Like Pace, she
noticed that one of the key factors to success is taking
time to help patients strategize about how to make changes
in their lifestyle.
This takes time, though, and she usually needs 35 to
40 minutes with a patient, rather than 30, when she
walks through a plan for making changes.
She also acknowledged that it's time-consuming to call
patients and check in after a month or two, but this
reinforcement seems to be vital in keeping patients
motivated.
Theroux reaps the benefit of this extra time in the
end, though. "It's very rewarding to see people
change," she said. "Almost every person in
the study, if their goal was to lose weight, they lost
weight. If they wanted to exercise, they increased exercise."
Although nurses like Theroux are taking the time to
start improving cardiac health among women, one nurse
said heart health advocates may encounter some resistance
because of the age group that is most affected.
"The thing that troubles me is that there has
been a big push on breast cancer, but it's not the leading
cause of death in women," said Judy LaRosa, Ph.D.,
RN, FAAN, a professor of preventive medicine at SUNY
Downstate Medical Center in New York. "Despite
the best efforts of the [American] Heart Association,
heart disease in women is not sexy, and I suspect it's
because heart disease tends to happen in older women.
We don't value our older people. Breast cancer can happen
in younger women, but heart disease begins when women
are pushing 60, 70 and 80."
LaRosa said this lack of interest in heart health means
that many women suffer from heart attacks without even
knowing it.
She said a woman may feel discomfort in her upper abdomen
and think she is having indigestion, when, in fact,
she is having a heart attack. A doctor may tell her
to come in a week later, when she should be going to
the emergency room. Fatigue or shortness of breath also
can be signs of a silent heart attack in a woman.
LaRosa is eager to see nurses learn to look for signs
of heart attack in women. She's also adamant that nurses
make every effort to help women reduce their risk factors
to delay or altogether avoid silent heart attacks. She
suggested that one way to help increase awareness is
for nurses to be role models of healthy lifestyles that
promote strong hearts.
Like LaRosa, Pace believes nurses have a critical role
in influencing patients to care about heart health,
and each success story can have far-reaching implications.
"I enjoy knowing I have helped people who are
going to then affect the whole community," she
said. "That's going to have a positive economic
influence on health care, plus an overall effect on
lifespan."
Contact Heather Stringer at heather_stringer@yahoo.com
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