Ventricular dysrhythmias: nursing approaches to health outcomes

Cardiovascular nurses contribute significantly to health outcomes and frequently assume responsibility for the clinical and organizational processes to ensure positive outcomes for patients and families. In ventricular dysrhythmia populations, nurses have provided evidence for practices that influence outcomes and have studied patient outcomes related to mortality, morbidity, quality of life, psychological and physical functioning, symptoms, and family responses. Additionally, nurses have contributed to understanding organizational outcomes, such as costs and resource use related to patients with dysrhythmias. Most ventricular dysrhythmia outcome studies are descriptive. More intervention research is needed to develop a cohesive and comprehensive body of evidence upon which to base dysrhythmia nursing care to improve patient outcomes.