[Nursing process in heart failure]

The nursing process is a method that guides nursing actions, which are necessary to foster a fast recovery in patients. This process may be developed in a holistic way based on several nursing models, according to the needs of the patient coursing with some kind of cardiac failure. The objective of this investigation was to collect epidemiological and clinical data, as well as on diagnostic and therapeutic actions for cardiac failure. We also describe the physiopathology of the diseases to inform the nursing staff on the relevance of the nursing process within hospitals and how it will result in better care, decreasing time and costs of hospitalization and increasing benefits, which are the goals proposed.