Which nursing diagnosis takes highest priority at this time?

Coronary artery bypass surgery is a heart bypass where an artery is blocked or partially blocked. When this happens, the patient must undergo surgery and sometimes stints are put into the arteries so that blood can flow.

The surgeon may go through the left internal thoracic artery or through the left anterior descending branch. If a patient in a hospital is recovering from coronary artery bypass graft surgery, it is important for the nurse to keep watch and monitor this patient intently.

The nurse should mainly look for decreased cardiac output related to depressed myocardial function, fluid volume deficit, or impaired electrical conduction. There would be other things for the nurse to monitor including their vital signs and their breathing.

Decreased cardiac output related to depressed myocardial function, fluid volume deficit, or impaired electrical conduction-rationale: for a client recovering from cabg surgery, decreased cardiac output is the most important nursing diagnosis; anesthetics or a long cardiopulmonary bypass time may depress myocardial function, leading to decreased cardiac output. other possible causes of decreased cardiac output in this client include fluid volume deficit and impaired electrical conduction. anxiety, disabled family coping, and hypothermia may be relevant but take lower priority at this time; maintaining cardiac output is essential to sustaining the clients life.client needs category: physiological integrityclient needs subcategory: reduction of risk potentialcognitive level: applicationreference: smeltzer, s.c., et al. brunner & suddarths textbook of medical surgical-nursing, 11th ed. philadelphia: lippincott williams & wilkins, 2008, p. 899.