Malthus777

Not to get all super technical, but i am a cardiac cathlab nurse. You most likley have an ICD implanted cardio defibrillator. It sends an electric impulse down your coronary sinus via a wire to shock it out of a potentially fatal arrhythmia. A pace maker controls the rate by giving a small amount to stimulate the atria (usually) the top recieving chsmbers or ventricles, the bottom pumping chambers of the cardiac cycle.

I am an RN in the cath lab, I see people who are non complaint (keep smoking, dont take come back for another stent and dont want to do the right thing and after 10 years am getting burned out on the attitude of people who cant seem to care enough about dying to change their lifestyles. It is frustrating to watch people loose loved ones who can not change and slowly turn into sicker and sicker patients drawing more and more from the limited resource pool. I want to move up to a nurse practitioner one day but dont know how to change peoples habits/mindsets/lifestyles etc....

How do you motivate patients to change bad habits? Ie quitting smoking, eating healthier, getting exercise.