Comparing the association of cardiovascular nursing care with blood pressure and length of stay of in-patients with coronary artery disease in Wuhan, China

Abstract

Background: Coronary artery disease is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Comorbidity-like hyperten- sion has been among the major risks of coronary artery disease. Recent evidence identified multiple benefits of cardiovas- cular nursing care to coronary patients. However, little has been appraised on benefits regarding patients’ blood pressure control and length of hospitalisation. Objective: To compare the association of cardiovascular nursing care delivered to coronary artery patients with patients’ blood pressure and length of stay. Methods: Records based retrospective design was applied at a large teaching hospital in Wuhan, China. SPSS 21 version was used for data entry and analysis with univariate and multivariate logistic regression models for comparing study variables. Results: Of 300 patients, 224 (74.7%) were known to be hypertensive and admitted with subnormal blood pressure. Cardiovascular nursing care like “assess to grade pain severity on 1-10 scale” and “counsel patient to cope with stress” were six and three times more likely to contribute improved patients’ blood pressure (AOR=5.8; 95%CI: 2.8-12.2, p=0.001) and (AOR=3.1; 95%CI: 1.2-7.8, p=0.015) respectively. No significant difference with length of stay (p>0.05). Conclusion: There is a possibility of coronary artery patients to recover with normal blood pressure following reception of evidence-based cardiovascular nursing care. Keywords: Cardiovascular nursing care; blood pressure; in-patients; coronary artery; Wuhan; China.