Heart failure is the only cardiovascular disease that is increasing. The impact on the critical care environment and the health care system, as a whole, is significant from both a cost and burden to the system perspective. There are 6.5 million hospital days a year and nearly $40 billion dollars in yearly health care costs attributed to heart failure in the United States. There are more Medicare monies spent for diagnosing and treating heart failure than any other Diagnosis Related Group. There is a 24% hospital re-admission rate for this diagnosis which leads to financial implications for health care systems. The human cost is also significant. Less than half of Americans diagnosed with heart failure survive greater than 5 years. The ongoing health care needs and cost of this chronic disease takes a significant toll on patients’ finances, time and quality of life. Over $2.9 billion dollars is spent annually on the pharmaceutical management of heart failure in the United States. This diagnosis is the leading cause of hospitalization for patients who are 65 years of age and older. Few health care providers in the critical care environment are not affected by heart failure on a routine basis. Caring for these patients and their families is both a challenging and yet a rewarding experience. This edition will provide critical care nurses with a comprehensive heart failure review which is essential in caring for this challenging population given the dynamic health and critical care environments.

In this issue of Critical Care Nursing Clinics, guest editor and Heart Failure and Valve Coordinator Nicole Jones, APRN, CNS, brings her considerable expertise to the topic of Heart Failure and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement. Critical care nurses are vital to improving patient outcomes and the delivery of quality care in patients with heart failure, including recent emphases on the in-patient admission, faster diagnosis of acute or decompensated heart failure, in-patient management in an appropriate care environment, and planned discharge. In this issue, top experts in the field provide current updates in both the clinical care of the heart failure patient as well as nursing interventions to improve outcomes. Contains 12 relevant, practice-oriented topics including patient symptom perceptions and lay consultations prior to hospitalization with HF and how clinicians can improve care; barriers to heart failure treatment optimization; the role of telemedicine in improving GDMT for heart failure patients during a pandemic; nurse-led anesthesia for TAVR or other TAVR patient care improvements; TAVR efficiency/screening and care pathways for improving efficiency while maintaining outcomes; and more. Provides in-depth clinical reviews on heart failure and transcatheter aortic valve replacement, offering actionable insights for clinical practice. Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field. Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create clinically significant, topic-based reviews.

This issue of Critical Care Nursing Clinics, Guest Edited by Bobbi Leeper, MN, RN, CNS M-S, CCRN, at Baylor University Medical Center, provides review of Cardiac topics for the practicing nurse. Article topics include: Spectrum of Acute Coronary Syndromes; Mechanical Complications of AMI; Glucose Control in the Cardiovascular Patient; Pulmonary Hypertension; Pulmonary Problems in the Patient with Cardiovascular Disease; Stroke Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery; Surgery on Thoracic Aorta; Heart Valve Surgery; Complications of Cardiac Surgery; Electrolyte Disorders in the Cardiac Patient; and Cardiogenic Shock.

A cardiac dysrhythmia is a disturbance in the cardiac rhythm which can be normal (e.g., sinus arrhythmia) or instantly lethal (e.g., sustained ventricular tachycardia). This issue of Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America will provide state of the art diagnostic and treatment information for cardiac dysrhythmias as well as addressing how to achieve the most accurate diagnostic approach to interpreting an electrocardiogram, which is omnipresent in critical care and of critical importance in diagnosing arrhythmias. Articles in this issue are devoted to: The Normal Cardiac Conduction System; The Normal Electrocardiogram: Resting 12-lead and Continuous Cardiac Rhythm Strips; Premature Beats; Paroxysmal Supraventricular Tachycardia, Including the Special Type Called Wolff-Parkinson-White; Atrial Fibrillation, The Most Common Type of Supraventricular Arrhythmia; Ventricular Tachycardia and Its Disorganized Counterpart, Ventricular Fibrillation; Brady-Dysrhythmias, When Heart Rate Slows Myocardial Ischemia & Infarction and their Relationship to Dysrhythmias; Pharmacologically Induced Dysrhythmias; and Implantable Cardiac Devices and their Role in Dysrhythmias Management.

In this issue of Critical Care Nursing Clinics, guest editor and Heart Failure and Valve Coordinator Nicole Jones, APRN, CNS, brings her considerable expertise to the topic of Heart Failure and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement. Critical care nurses are vital to improving patient outcomes and the delivery of quality care in patients with heart failure, including recent emphases on the in-patient admission, faster diagnosis of acute or decompensated heart failure, in-patient management in an appropriate care environment, and planned discharge. In this issue, top experts in the field provide current updates in both the clinical care of the heart failure patient as well as nursing interventions to improve outcomes. Contains 12 relevant, practice-oriented topics including patient symptom perceptions and lay consultations prior to hospitalization with HF and how clinicians can improve care; barriers to heart failure treatment optimization; the role of telemedicine in improving GDMT for heart failure patients during a pandemic; nurse-led anesthesia for TAVR or other TAVR patient care improvements; TAVR efficiency/screening and care pathways for improving efficiency while maintaining outcomes; and more. Provides in-depth clinical reviews on heart failure and transcatheter aortic valve replacement, offering actionable insights for clinical practice. Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field. Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create clinically significant, topic-based reviews.

This issue of Critical Care Nursing Clinics, Guest Edited by Margaret M Ecklund, MS, RN, CCRN, ACNP-BC, will focus on Winter Health Challenges, with article topics including: Near Drowning and Multiple Organism Aspiration; Geriatric Perils: Falls and Complications; Vitamin D Deficiency; Gastroenteritis and Surgical Perils; Frostbite; Rural Trauma; Respiratory failure and adult influenza; RSV; Diabetes and Seasonal Depression; and Holiday Heart Disease.