Purpose: To provide registered nurses with information to help them better care for patients with atrial fibrillation.

Objectives:

1. Explain the pathophysiology of atrial fibrillation (AF).
2. Identify how to assess a patient for AF.
3. Differentiate heart rate control and heart rhythm control in AF management.
4. Discuss nursing interventions for patients with AF.

Description: How up-to-date is your knowledge base? The most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation (AF), is reaching epidemic proportions. No matter where you practice, you’re bound to care for patients with AF.

Read the article [PDF], then click on the link below to take the test.

Author

Liza A. Prudente, MSN, RN, ACNP-C, is the Electrophysiology/Atrial Fibrillation Center at the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville. She has disclosed no relevant financial relationships with any commercial companies pertaining to this activity.

1.6 contact hours, including 0.5 pharmacology contact hours, are provided by ANA.

The American Nurses Association Center for Continuing Education and Professional Development is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

ANA is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, provider number CEP6178.

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