Actionable points on patients and nursing perspectives to help clinicians in the decision-making approach to CVD in women
| Disease condition | Actionable points |
| Nursing perspectives |
⇒ Nurses serve as staunch advocates for women in several CV domains including promoting awareness, delivering personalised care, rectifying disparities, fostering shared decision-making, advocating for policy reforms and contributing to research and educational endeavours. ⇒ Leverage influence to highlight and address sex biases in healthcare and work towards reducing disparities and enhancing access to care and outcomes for women with CVD. |
| Patient perspectives |
⇒ Call for a holistic woman-centred approach to heart care that listens to and incorporates women’s experiences and insights. ⇒ A collaborative campaign involving stakeholders from various sectors, including the media, to raise awareness about the importance of CV health for women. ⇒ Disseminated information should be consistent, evidence-based and tailored to the unique needs of women, ensuring accessibility, inclusivity and cultural sensitivity. ⇒ Highlight heart conditions that predominantly or exclusively affect women. ⇒ Any initiative focusing on women’s heart health should prioritise improving the communication skills of healthcare professionals to understand and appropriately respond to women’s experiences. ⇒ Co-designed training programmes should be developed for healthcare professionals to become more attuned to women’s specific needs, including the nuances of women’s cardiac symptoms. ⇒ Women should be empowered to openly discuss their symptoms and worries. ⇒ Ensure women are not only heard but also accurately assessed and treated in a timely manner. ⇒ Every woman should feel that her heart matters too, feeling respected and understood. |
CV, cardiovascular; CVD, cardiovascular disease.