抄録
Congestive heart failure is the most common reason for admission to hospital. For such patients, various interventions by nurses could enhance quality of life and reduce the need to be readmitted at a later date. As patients' lack of compliance regarding medication and diet are frequently contributory factors in early readmission, both nurses and pharmacists should play a more active role in patient education, for which purpose it would be necessary to have a greater knowledge of the medical treatment and care of patients. In this regard, as we were unsure of whether nurses had an adequate knowledge of the pharmacology required for the medical treatment of cardiovascular diseases or not, we conducted a questionnaire survey of nurses working in cardiology and cardiovascular surgery wards. The departments of pharmacy and nursing collaborated on administering the questionnaire, which asked questions concerning the contraindications and precautions of medicines used in such treatment. Correct response rates were 92%, 83%, 90%, 90% and 95%, for carvedilol, carperitide, digoxin, amiodarone and dopamine, respectively.
It is essential for nurses working in cardiology to have a perfect knowledge of the points targeted by the questionnaire because they concerned the basic pharmacology of medicines regularly used. This was particularly so for Carvedilol, a β-blocker, which was frequently used for ischemic heart disease as well as chronic heart failure.
The nurses may not have had a sufficient knowledge of the pharmacology of the drugs targeted by the questionnaire because there were limited opportunities for them to acquire it in the course of their work. The results of our questionnaire indicated that pharmacists need to provide the optimum amount of drug information to nurses. We also feel that it may be necessary to draw up educational programs for them in collaboration with physicians and senior nurses.
