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Clinical Practice
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Caring for the Patient with Heart Failure

Build practical nursing skills to assess, stabilize, educate, and coordinate care for adults with acute or chronic heart failure across care settings.

Registered nurse assessing an adult with heart failure in a hospital room, listening to lung sounds while reviewing cardiac rhythm, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, and fluid-balance findings.
Contact hours
5
Format
Self-paced, online
Last reviewed
Sep 19, 2026

$25.00or included with All-Access

$5 per contact hour · 5 contact hours

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  • No post-test required · unlimited retakes · evaluation and attestation always required

Course Purpose

Build practical nursing skills to assess, stabilize, educate, and coordinate care for adults with acute or chronic heart failure across care settings.

Continuing Education Credit Designation

This educational activity is credited for 5 contact hours at completion of the activity.

Overview

After completing this course, nurses will be able to recognize heart failure phenotypes, stages, precipitating factors, and signs of worsening congestion or impaired perfusion. Learners will connect assessment findings with appropriate diagnostic tests and urgent interventions. Nurses will also be able to safely support guideline-directed therapy, monitor treatment response, provide individualized self-care education, and coordinate transitions for patients living with heart failure.

Objectives

Upon completion of this independent study, the learner will be able to:

  1. Differentiate heart failure phenotypes by ejection fraction, ventricular involvement, clinical presentation, and disease stage.
  2. Assess patients for congestion, impaired perfusion, acute coronary syndrome, cardiogenic shock, and other conditions requiring escalation.
  3. Interpret common heart failure findings from the physical examination, electrocardiogram, laboratory studies, chest imaging, and echocardiography.
  4. Apply current principles for acute stabilization and guideline-directed management of HFrEF, HFmrEF, and HFpEF.
  5. Develop an individualized nursing plan for medication monitoring, symptom surveillance, self-care education, and transitional care.
  6. Compare STEMI and NSTEMI presentations and initiate time-sensitive nursing actions for suspected acute coronary syndrome.

Policy Statement

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the policies of FastCEForLess.com. This course should be used for informational purposes only and should not be used to diagnose, treat, prescribe, recommend, or initiate therapies or treatments in any setting. This course is copyrighted by Fast CE For Less, Inc. and may not be replicated, copied, or dispersed without written consent.

Disclosures

Fast CE For Less, Inc. and its authors have no disclosures. There is no commercial support.

Who this course is for:

Healthcare professionals who want continuing education on Caring for the Patient with Heart Failure.

Course outline

12 sections · finish in any order across devices

  1. 1

    Introduction

  2. 2

    Normal Heart Function

  3. 3

    Definition of Heart Failure

  4. 4

    Signs and Symptoms of Heart Failure

  5. 5

    Types of Heart Failure

  6. 6

    Risk Factors for Heart Failure

  7. 7

    Stages and Classification Systems

  8. 8

    Treatment of Heart Failure

  9. 9

    Long-Term Management of Heart Failure

  10. 10

    STEMI and NSTEMI

  11. 11

    Nursing Considerations

  12. 12

    Conclusion

References

The full reference list is included inside the course, after the Conclusion.

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