Question

You are caring for a patient admitted to the hospital for an acute myocardial infarction three days ago. The patient is a 58 year old male with a history of hypertension and obesity. Prior to his admission he was taking Hydrochlorothiazide 50 mg po daily with adequate control of his BP. He will be discharged with a prescription for NTG (Nitrostat) 0.3mg sublingual prn, atenolol (Tenormin) 50mg po daily, and a baby aspirin daily. You must prepare a patient education plan for him, including medication education. What will you include in this plan?

Answer 1

Patient education:
- Advice the patient to follow the medication as directed, never skip the dose and never over the dose if you skip the prescribed dose.
- Take Adequate rest.
- Join in heart rehabilitation program it helps to strengthen the heart and lungs
- Keep blood pressure monitoring at home to check daily pulse and blood pressure
- Avoid fat rich, processed food, cholesterol, fried food
- Avoid salt and eat only fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Exercise for at least 3 to 4 days weekly including walking, jogging, swimming and riding a bicycle.
-Have a goal to maintain the weight.
-stop smoking and alcohol.
-avoid stress at home and in the workplace.
-If you have lightheadedness, dizziness, fast heartbeat consult the doctor immediately.
-Advice the patient about Nitrostat medication that is for chest pain. If you have chest pain you can take this medication and keep the medicine under the tongue within 5 to 10 minutes before causing chest pain. Take rest after this medicine.
- Reach to the hospital if chest pain is severe and persist for more than 5 minutes.
This medicine produces a burning sensation in your mouth. carry this medicine always at hand, don't take it on a regular basis to prevent chest pain.
-Atenolol medicine for treating chest pain and hypertension, it should be taken daily once. Don't stop the medicine suddenly, it make the condition worse, follows the correct timing for taking this medicine.
-Baby aspirin should be chewed thoughly or crushed or swallowed whole. Take daily once, don't take more than one per day. If you have a sudden headache, cough, vomiting, abnormal bleeding, ringing in the ear, fever inform a physician immediately. Avoid alcohol and tobacco when using this medicine.