The nursing assessment and management of patients with angina

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a growing problem in the UK. Angina is just one way that CHD manifests itself in the patient, thus challenging the approach that healthcare professionals use to manage these patients. With approximately 2-4% of all accident and emergency admissions presenting with chest pain, it is important that nurses, who are often the first healthcare professionals to assess the patient, have the appropriate knowledge and expertise to distinguish the aetiology of the chest pain. With CHD being the main cause for illness and death in the UK, it is inevitable that nurses at some point in their career will need to assess and manage patients with this presentation.