Managing the Infected Heart

The Lived Experience of Nurses Caring for Patients Diagnosed With Intravenous Drug Use–Associated Infective Endocarditis in Appalachia: A Phenomenological Study

“…William Osler documented cardiac symptoms of “pain, palpitations, sense of distress, and murmur” along with fever, nausea, and vomiting in 1885 (p. 522), and yet more than 100 years later, IE “continues to surprise, frustrate, and perplex” (Prendergast, 2006, p. 879). Although dental hygiene and body art (e.g., tattooing and body piercing) are risk factors for contracting IE (Armstrong et al, 2008; Smith et al, 2007), in the person who uses intravenous (IV) drugs, IE is generally a needle borne infection contracted from unsterile injection practices (Ji et al, 2012). Conversations are occurring in the medical community regarding the futility surrounding heart valve surgery for people who inject drugs and contract IE (Hull & Jadbabaie, 2014; Mishra, 2018; Yeo et al, 2006).…”