Heart attacks and cardiac arrests (Part 2)

Cardiac Arrest

In the last post, we defined cardiac arrest as the sudden, unexpected collapse of the heart’s mechanical pumping action that is potentially reversible. In this post, we’ll look at some of the causes of cardiac arrest, what types of cardiac arrest benefit from the use of a defibrillator, and the principles of resuscitation. In the next post, I’ll take you through the mechanics of how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation CPR if you are...

Heart attacks and cardiac arrests (Part 1)

In the next two or three posts, I want to talk about some acute cardiac conditions that people have usually heard of but are often a bit unclear about, or even completely misunderstand. The list includes heart attacks, heart failure, shock, cardiomyopathy and cardiac arrest.

Heart attacks

There are more than 100,000 heart attacks in the UK each year. The good news is that more than 7 out of 10 victims live to tell the tale. Actually, it’s really great...

Other NHS hospital staff (Part 2)

In the last post, we looked at all the different types of nurses who work in NHS hospitals. In this post, we’ll concentrate on the other clinical staff you might run into.

Midwives (aka Madwives)

I didn’t include midwives in the previous post because most midwives today aren’t nurses. Midwives have actually been regulated, independent medical practitioners in their own right since The Midwives Act, 1902. However, at the inception of the NHS in 1948, the...