Fitting Exercise Into Your Life

Hello students!  Several of you asked me last week about the Komen 3-day for the Cure walk.  While this walk is not directly related to the Cardiovascular system, the addition of exercise is.  I wanted to provide you with several links to spur you onto adding exercise into your general schedule and then hopefully, aiding your patients into adding exercise into theirs!

The Komen 3-day walk was an incredible experience for me last year.  I won't be walking this year as I will be finishing up my MSN and have limited time for the weekly training walks.  Each Saturday, there is typically a training walk somewhere in San Diego County.  They range from 3 mile walks to the walk that we discussed which involved taking a train to Oceanside and walking back!  All were a great source of exercise and camaraderie with the other walkers.  If you would like more information  on the Komen 3 Day Walk, click below and it will take you to their sign up page.

Komen 3 day for a Cure

I look forward to seeing you all in class for our final week of Cardiac! 

Center for Disease Control Website

Hello everyone!  We spoke in class about appropriate sources of information.  We discussed the reason behind not using Wikipedia as a source; the information contained on the site is not peer reviewed.  The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), however, is an excellent source of information.  We are almost on the last day of May and since the CDC has declared May as High Blood Pressure Education Month (2011), I would like you to visit the site to become familiar with it. 

You can visit the main page of the CDC website by clicking here:  CDC

You can also go directly to the High Blood Pressure page by clicking here: High blood Pressure

We will be discussing what you learned from your CDC excursion on Tuesday.  Please come ready to share one fact about any disease that sparke d your interest!

See you on Tuesday!

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011).  May is high blood
     pressure education month. Retrieved May 30, 2011  
    from http://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/hbp_education_month.htm

KTP Videos

Hello Everyone - I overheard that there was some confusion on how to access the Kaplan Test Prep Review videos on your KTP site.  Please see the image below to show you how to access the link.  The link does not explicitly say videos so I can understand the confusion.

Please let me know if your KTP site does not have access to the video selections.   I will be assigning you questions that will require you to watch them at home. 

See you in class on Tuesday!

Cardiac Review

As discussed in class, you have a chance to review five test questions on the blog.  You must answer each question to move onto the next!  Take your time and make sure that you read each question carefully. 

Click below for a chance to take your pre-test!

Cardiac Pre-Test


How did you do?  This is a small sampling of your upcoming test.  Study hard this weekend and I'll see you on Tuesday!

Congestive Heart Failure

Hello everyone. We spent time today discussing Congestive Heart Failure.  After listening to some of the questions today, I would like to have you take a little quiz on your own this evening.   Let's see how you do!

Match the type of congestive heart failure (right sided vs left sided) to the following list of symptoms:

1. Dyspnea
2. Jugular vein distention
3. Pitting dependant edema
4. Productive cough
5. Ascites
6. Hepatomegaly
7. Crackles
8. Pulsus alternans
9. Weight gain
10. Orthopnea
11. Nasal flaring
12. Anorexia, nausea, and vomiting

Having any trouble?  Try using this little trick.  We know that Left sided heart failure results in a back up to the lungs.  So the L in left stands for lungs (lungs and respiratory symptoms).  Right sided heart failure results in a back in the system returing blood to the heart.  The R in right stands for return from the system (systemic symptoms).  Now try the list again with remembering that trick.  Was it easier?

See me tomorrow for the answers!

Heart Sounds

Hello everyone - we discussed heart sounds in class today.  This video gives a good review of the actions related to the sounds.   He also mentions the "Kentucky" and "Tennessee" method of determining between S3 and S4.  He prefers to use the terms "Sloshing In" and "A Stiff Wall".   He does a great job of helping you truly hear the difference between the two sounds. 

Let me know what you think!  See you all in class!

Memory Book of Nursing

Hello students!  Many of you expressed interest in the picture tools that I drop into the PowerPoint's.  I discovered these graphics when I was a student and being a visual learner, they helped me understand concepts and study for the NCLEX.  The Memory Books of Nursing are the brain child of the Nursing Educational Consultants.  This link will take you to their website.  You can purchase the books separately or buy the CD.  I have had several students download the images onto their phone or Ipod and use them as study tools on the go.  You can also find them on FaceBook.  Typically they will post a few free pictures every week. 

Here are some examples.  I will continue to drop them into the PowerPoint's (PPT) as appropriate.  The Nursing Educational Consultants designed the CD to be used with PPT by educators.  I have, however, seen students that had a great deal of success using them as ongoing study tools.

I will see you all back in class.  Remember that homework is due on Tuesday after your holiday weekend.  Do not come to school on Monday....the rest of us will be enjoying the day elsewhere!

Have a good weekend after your clinical rotation this week!

Cardiac Power Point

Hello everyone!  Please see that attached Cardiac slides.  Many of you asked for the visual aids to help you study.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions!  

Cardiac Power Point

I know many of you expressed that the cardiac system is one of the more difficult systems to understand.  It will begin to make more sense as we move ahead in lecture.  Remember that tutoring is available if you need some one-to-one attention or would like to sign up as a group.  Go to the Nursing Department office and see Diane Banes to sign up.  Don't wait until the day before the final exam!

I am also available, as always, from 7am - 8am before class.

See you all tomorrow!

The ECG Dance

As we enter the cardiac unit, I thought you would enjoy some entertaining ways to remember your EKG rhythms!   Remember that we are testing on Chapters 7 and 8 on Tuesday.  A study guide was distributed in class.  If you have any questions, I will be in my office from 7am - 8am Monday morning.  Enjoy the video!

Life Outside the Comfort Zone

Hello students!  I look forward to an interesting term learning from each other.  The name of this blog was chosen from my own experiences as a student.  I remember being constantly challenged to move outside of my comfort zone and learn everything that I could.  This was one of the best pieces of advice that I ever received as a student nurse.  My hope is that you locate your comfort zone and wave goodbye to it.  Nursing is all about being a life long leaner and gleaming the most information out of ever encounter. 

We have fifteen weeks together and a variety of topics to cover this term.  I will post additional material on the blog several times a week so please check it on a regular basis.  I will also post the power point presentations to allow you additional study material.  The notes will be handed out in class, but as many of you prefer the actual power point slides and the accompanying graphics, they will be made available.

I look forward to a productive term.  I will see you all in class next week!