Assessment of Patient with Chest Pain and Diaphoresis Essay

 Assessment of Patient with Chest Pain and Diaphoresis Essay

 Assessment of Patient with Chest Pain and Diaphoresis Essay

 Assessment of Patient with Chest Pain and Diaphoresis Sample

            Patient presentations are usually the manifestation of an underlying disease process. When a patient is encountered with any of the signs and symptoms, the nurse should be able to recognize the features of a disease process, employ an appropriate diagnostic tool, and then accurately diagnose the disease to help in its treatment. If the patient’s symptoms are suggestive of an emergency illness, the nurse should also be able to provide supportive and definitive care to ameliorate the symptoms. This discussion highlights the steps that a nurse can take in assessing a patient with chest pain and diaphoresis.

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            Although chest pain in itself can result from a myriad of factors, when it occurs in combination with diaphoresis, a cardiac condition especially acute coronary syndrome (ACS) should be suspected (Harskamp et al., 2019). In these cases, the compromised blood supply to cardiac tissues leads to ischemia presenting as chest pain whereas the consequential activation of the sympathetic nervous system would lead to sweating. Even before the assessment of the patients, the nurse should be able to provide supportive therapy to the patient by providing supplemental oxygen and appropriate analgesia to reduce the worsening of the ischemia.

            In assessment, the nurse would be aiming at understanding the reasoning for patient presentation. The assessment begins by taking the history of cardiac symptoms where the patient would be asked to characterize the pain, and its associated symptoms, ascertain the history of diabetes mellitus or atherosclerosis that are risk factors, and also clarify if there is a previous history of similar symptoms or family history of cardiac conditions (Adamson et al., 2018). The cardiac physical examination will then be done with a focus on assessing pulses and precordium. Diagnostic tests that could be ordered include echocardiography to determine ischemia, electrocardiography to understand cardiac functioning, and cardiac enzyme assay to identify any rise in ischemia biomarkers (Rousan & Thadani, 2019). Further, chest x-ray and CT scans can also be requested to rule out other causes of chest pain such as pneumonia. The history, physical examination, and diagnostic tests are important assessment tools for this patient.

References

Adamson, P. D., Newby, D. E., Hill, C. L., Coles, A., Douglas, P. S., & Fordyce, C. B. (2018). Comparison of international guidelines for assessment of suspected stable angina: Insights from the PROMISE and SCOT-HEART. JACC. Cardiovascular Imaging, 11(9), 1301–1310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2018.06.021

Harskamp, R. E., Laeven, S. C., Himmelreich, J. C., Lucassen, W. A. M., & van Weert, H. C. P. M. (2019). Chest pain in general practice: a systematic review of prediction rules. BMJ Open, 9(2), e027081. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027081

Rousan, T. A., & Thadani, U. (2019). Stable angina medical therapy management guidelines: A critical review of guidelines from the European Society of Cardiology and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. European Cardiology, 14(1), 18–22. https://doi.org/10.15420/ecr.2018.26.1

 

A patient presents with heaviness in their chest and is diaphoretic. What steps will you take in providing a proper assessment?