What type of personality did the last cardiac patient you took care of have?  When I think about my last cardiac patient, a Type "A" personality automatically comes to mind. But, an article in the American Journal of Cardiology may change our perception about who is having a heart attack. The article I am referring to looked at patients who either had a myocardial infarction or died of it. People with a Type "D" personality had triple the risk of having an MI or dying of an MI. What does a Type "D" personality look like you ask? It's someone who is angry or suppresses their anger. 

This makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Someone who is always angry or suppresses their anger, does sound like quite a few of the cardiac patients I've taken care of recently. Do we tell patients to let loose with their anger? Of course not. We need to help educate these patients in anger management techniques and connect them with a counselor who can teach them to handle their emotions in a more constructive way.  

So next time you take care of a patient experiencing a cardiac event, don't be so quick to give them an "A". They may be a "D" after all.

Posted by Anne Dabrow Woods, MSN, RN, CRNP, ANP-BC