Keeping the Beat is organized by Nurse.com - OnCourse Learning Corporation.

Release Date: Jan 03, 2002
Expiration Date: Dec 20, 2020

Accreditation:
This Course has been approved for a maximum of 1.0 Contact Hours.

Course Description:
Pacemakers can be life-changing devices that assist the electrical activity of a patient’s heart rhythm. They may provide relief of symptoms associated with many heart rhythm disturbances and improve functional status. Some devices may improve a patient’s quality of life. Pacemakers — temporary or permanent — can sense a patient’s heart activity and produce an electrical stimulus (pace) when the heart fails to beat on its own. This electrical impulse may create a myocardial contraction as directed by timing of the heart and the programmable pacemaker. The geriatric population continues to be the fastest-growing age group in the U.S., with patients older than 65 accounting for more than 85% of pacemaker recipients. The risk that the heart’s electrical conduction system will become degenerative increases with age, which results in electrical alterations that may be best managed with pacemaker therapy.

Goal and Learning Outcomes:
The goal of this program is to provide nurses with general information about indications for pacemaker insertion, the way in which pacemakers function, and the important elements of patient education after insertion of a pacemaker. After studying the information presented here, you will be able to:
• Explain basic information about pacemaker function
• Describe three indications for pacemaker insertion
• Give examples of instructions to patients

Additional details will be posted as soon as they are available.