Heart Education Awareness Resource and Training through eLearning (HEARTe)

Let’s think about this

What poor prognostic indicators might be associated with Bill?

Prognosis: Is a medical term used to foresee the predictive or most likely outcome. A complete prognosis includes the expected duration, the function, and a description of the course of the disease which may include progressive, intermittent, sudden or an unpredictable decline.

True/False Quiz

Q. What prognostic indicators may be associated with Bill?

  • Male (T)
  • Increasing age (T)
  • Reduced function (T)
  • Poor mobility (T)
  • Increasing symptoms (T)
  • Lives alone (T)
  • Progressive illness (T)
  • Multiple co-morbidities (T)

Yes, this is considered a poor prognostic indicator for Bill.

There are no wrong answers.

Pulse point

When patients ask about what their prognosis is, it can be unhelpful to start listing research information. Perhaps a more appropriate way is to make the statistics more meaningful to the individual patient. The following links can support you with suggested responses.

It is recognised that general clinicians can be reluctant to discuss heart failure prognosis for fear of upsetting patients and their families. These conversations can be difficult and may benefit from experience and/or advanced communication skills training.

Activity: You may wish to consider shadowing an experienced colleague to enhance these skills.

Page last reviewed: 28 Jul 2020