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Contact information

St-Elisabeth site - Uccle
02-614 20 00
St-Michel site - Etterbeek
02-614 30 00
Bella Vita Medical Center - Waterloo
02-614 42 00

The team

CARDIAC REVALIDATION SERVICE

St-Elisabeth site: → 02 614 27 60
St-Michel site: → 02 614 38 63

 

Cardiologists

St-Elisabeth site: Dr Vlassak Irmien → 02 614 27 10
St-Michel site: Dr Kubangumusu Linda → 02 614 37 10
Dr Van Der Haert Laurence → 02 614 37 10

 

Our heart failure nurses : for even more specific care ! 

St-Elisabeth site: Mrs Vaes Marie-Thérèse → 02 614 28 08
St-Michel site: Mrs Geber Patricia → 02 614 37 04

Our two heart failure nurse, Mrs Patricia Geber and Mrs Marie-Thérèse Vaes both hold an inter-university certificate (ULiège, UCLouvain, ULB) in therapeutic education for heart failure patients.

They are both members of the Belgian Heart Failure Nurses (BHFN) group created in 2010, a group that collaborates with the cardiologists of the BWGHF group (Belgian Working Group on Heart failure).

 

DIETICIANS

St-Elisabeth site: Mrs Olave Stéphanie → 02 614 20 73
St-Michel site: Mrs Smets Régine → 02 614 31 83

 

Interview with our heart failure nurses

Since 2021, we have had a heart failure clinic at both our sites. To find out what role the heart failure nurses play, we talked to Marie-Thérèse Vaes at the St-Elisabeth site who works with her colleague Patricia Geber at the St-Michel site.

Patricia Geber et Marie-Thérèse Vaes
Patricia Geber (left) and Marie-Thérèse Vaes (right)

 

How long have you been working in the Europe Hospitals and where do you work ?

Marie-Thérèse : "I have been working here since 1993, so that's 27 years in the Europe Hospitals. I started in the Cathlab at that time. After 6 years in the Cathlab, I started working in the Internal Medicine Consultation, and more precisely in the Cardiology Consultation. Since 1999 I have also been involved in clinical studies in the field of cardiology. At the end of 2013, I was asked to work on heart failure."

Patricia : "I have been working at the Europe Hospitals since 2011, first in Radiotherapy and for 4 years in Cardiology consultation. I work 3 half days for Heart Failure."

What is the role of a heart failure nurse ?

Marie-Thérèse : "With the ageing of the population, we are more and more confronted with heart failure. These patients frequently come to the hospital and are hospitalised several times. In order to limit these entries and exits to the hospital, we try to follow the patients very regularly with our multidisciplinary team, namely the cardiologist, the nurse specialised in heart failure, the physiotherapists, the cardiac revalidation, the dietitians, the psychologists, the social workers... The first contact takes place during hospitalisation and then I follow them up with the cardiologist during scheduled consultations."

Patricia : "My main activity is the patient education consultation, either during hospitalisation, when the patient is often stressed and not very receptive, or in consultation. This first contact consists of a presentation, a brief explanation of their illness and the delivery of an information booklet. He will be seen again 10 days after his leaving at my consultation."

What training did you receive to this end ?

Marie-Thérèse : "The aim is to further develop the clinical route and the heart failure clinic, and to offer quality and service to patients. This requires a good scientific background. On the St-Michel site, there is already a certified nurse, Patricia Geber. For the St-Elisabeth site, I am currently training to obtain this certificate by following a course given by the University of Liege. The postgraduate training in heart failure lasts one and a half years and is divided into several modules. "

Patricia : "I followed the very first training course dedicated to the therapeutic education of the heart failure patient in order to set up the nursing component of the heart failure clinic on the St-Michel site. It is an inter-university training (ULB, UGL and UCL) which offers a programme validated by the Belgian Working Group on Heart Failure and Cardiac Function.  "

What problems do you face in your work ?

Marie-Thérèse : "Heart failure is a complex, serious and chronic disease, which is underestimated and requires a lot of support for the patient, both for himself and for his family. 
With this follow-up, we try to improve the quality of life of patients suffering from heart failure, to limit hospitalisations and to offer the necessary adaptations to keep them at home as long as possible. 
The monitoring is not always easy. Patients go through many ups and downs during their illness. Finding the right treatment and stabilising patients often takes a long time, which can lead to discouragement. Isolation during the Covid crisis is extremely painful for patients. Follow-up requires a lot of energy and patience from both the patient and the family. I can therefore also be contacted by phone to adjust the treatment in consultation with the cardiologist, to have a chat, to listen to them or to make sure that they do not run out of medication and much more. Sometimes they need encouragement because they have to eat a low-salt diet and water intake has to be limited to one and a half litres per 24 hours.
I ask the patients to fill in the follow-up booklet with the main parameters: daily weight control, blood pressure and heart rate. The cardiologist and I then check it during the consultation. It is also very interesting for the general practitioner's supervision. "

Patricia : "The patient receives a lot of information and will have to make a lot of effort to become an actor in his health. It's often too much at once and he or she may give up. To avoid this, we limit ourselves to establishing a few objectives, e.g. buying a scale, weighing themselves every day and limiting their drinks. The result will be evaluated at the next consultation and other goals will be decided. Heart failure is a disease that is not well known to the general public, who do not always measure its seriousness. A lot of information has to be given to ensure that patients realise the importance of changing their lifestyle habits. It is sometimes frustrating to see that despite all the energy spent, as soon as they get better, the good resolutions disappear immediately."

Do you have any projects you are working on, or any objectives you would like to achieve ?

Marie-Thérèse : "We were involved in the Heart-on-Track project to provide long-distance patient monitoring. Patients went home with a tablet, a blood pressure monitor and a scale that were connected to the hospital via Bluetooth. The 12 patients who participated at the time were very enthusiastic about the monitoring because all parameters were transmitted daily. This daily tracking by the physician and the nurse allows any problems to be rectified quickly by phone or by inviting them to make an appointment."

Patricia : “Since October, we have set up a distance control system via the COMUNICARE application. The patient receives a scale and a blood pressure device to be connected via Bluetooth to the application. A dashboard is made available to us to consult and analyse the data transmitted by the patient. The mobile application gives the patient access to his or her treatment programme. This can also include dyspnoea, chest pain, oedema and palpitations. The teleconferences are also possible.”

Which physicians do you work with?

Marie-Thérèse : "Mainly with cardiologists. Before coming to the consultation, I have already done a preliminary examination and taken the necessary parameters. I try to avoid any additional consultations because coming to the hospital is not always easy for everyone: parking or finding an available driver... And we should not forget the financial impact either."

Patricia : "Apart from the patient follow-up, I attend certain congresses, meetings for the development of new projects, I also participate in the creation of educational documents for the patient, explanations to the nurses about the specificities of the care of these patients... Let's not forget that multidisciplinary of the heart failure patient's care is essential and we have contact with all the actors involved."
 

Source: Heart failure clinic  - Last update: 27/04/2021