Heart Failure: Partnering With Patients to Promote Independence

Presented by Virginia Bowen

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Video Runtime: 29 Minutes; Learning Assessment: 31 Minutes

Therapists have a significant role in managing heart failure. Patients are provided with important information regarding their disease and how to self-manage, and therapists can assist in guiding patients and reinforcing proper management. Due to the disease process, heart failure patients have a decline in physical activity and functional independence, which is the heart of therapy practice. This course will provide clinicians with interventions to reinforce heart failure teaching. It will also provide therapists with tools to determine the patient's physical baseline, assess patient readiness for physical activity, and provide tenets of an evidence-based treatment program that promotes independence.

Meet your instructor

Virginia Bowen

Virginia Bowen is a clinical and evidence-based practice educator and DPT with more than 20 years of physical therapy and education experience. She is passionate about creating engaging and relevant programs that support clinicians reaching their highest potential in both personal and professional positions. In Virginia’s…

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Chapters & learning objectives

Knowledge Assessment

1. Knowledge Assessment

This chapter will provide strategies for behavior modification and ways to facilitate patient buy-in for lifestyle changes in order to self-manage heart failure. Patients require education and guidance to make necessary changes. Therapists are equipped to assess patients and be the facilitators of needed changes.

Stability Assessment

2. Stability Assessment

Patients require assessment of vitals before and after activity to ensure there are no signs of decompensation and that the patient can tolerate the treatment. This chapter will discuss the difference between absolute and relative stability, as well as how to determine a cardiopulmonary baseline of the patient.

Determining Prescription Elements

3. Determining Prescription Elements

Research has shown that muscles require the correct amount of stimulus to get stronger and that without the overload, patients will not improve. This chapter will focus on the components of a multimodal exercise prescription and tools to use to determine the dose of exercise that is tailored to heart failure patients.