Nurses' Knowledge, Beliefs, and Exercise Habits: A Focus on Cardiovascular Disease

Course #31840 - $15 -

Overview

Nurses are crucial in educating patients on preventing and managing CVD. However, the demanding nature of their profession places them at greater risk for health issues, including CVD. Despite understanding that regular physical activity is essential in reducing risks for CVD, many nurses do not exercise enough, which negatively affects their health and potentially the quality of patient care.

Education Category: Community Health
Release Date: 09/01/2025
Expiration Date: 08/31/2028

Table of Contents

Audience

This course is designed for nurses in all practice settings whose attention to self-care and cardiovascular disease prevention may impact their ability to live healthily and provide optimal patient care.

Accreditations & Approvals

In support of improving patient care, TRC Healthcare/NetCE is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team. NetCE is accredited by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET). NetCE complies with the ANSI/IACET Standard, which is recognized internationally as a standard of excellence in instructional practices. As a result of this accreditation, NetCE is authorized to issue the IACET CEU.

Designations of Credit

NetCE designates this continuing education activity for 1 ANCC contact hour(s). NetCE designates this continuing education activity for 1.2 hours for Alabama nurses. NetCE is authorized by IACET to offer 0.1 CEU(s) for this program. AACN Synergy CERP Category B.

Individual State Nursing Approvals

In addition to states that accept ANCC, NetCE is approved as a provider of continuing education in nursing by: Arkansas, Provider #50-2405; California, BRN Provider #CEP9784; California, LVN Provider #V10662; California, PT Provider #V10842; District of Columbia, Provider #50-2405; Florida, Provider #50-2405; Georgia, Provider #50-2405; Kentucky, Provider #7-0054 through 12/31/2025; South Carolina, Provider #50-2405; West Virginia RN and APRN, Provider #50-2405.

Course Objective

The purpose of this course is to highlight the relationship between nurses' health beliefs and self-care and their recommendations and teachings to patients, with the goal of supporting interventions to better support nurses' healthy lifestyle choices, self-care, and patient teaching.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

  1. Outline the role of nurses in promoting and modeling health and wellness for patients.
  2. Relate the importance of nurses' health to performance and patient care.
  3. Discuss strategies for nurses to incorporate healthier lifestyle choices.

Faculty

Tina Schmidt-McNulty, DHSc, MS, ACSM-CEP, RN, is an instructor in the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her academic foundation in health, exercise instruction/programming, and nursing is strengthened by specialized certifications in clinical exercise physiology and group fitness. Her professional background includes clinical nursing experience in cardiovascular care and cardiac rehabilitation, as well as coaching at the high school level, where she developed seasonal training programs. She is also an active member of the Exercise is Medicine Clinical Practice Committee.

With more than 30 years in the fitness industry as a presenter, author, coach, and instructor, Dr. Schmidt-McNulty has published numerous articles on special populations and health risk factors, and has led initiatives promoting fitness and wellness in corporate, hospital, and university settings. Her work reflects a commitment to bridging academic knowledge with practical application, encouraging student engagement, and building a strong foundation for lifelong learning in health and exercise sciences.

Faculty Disclosure

Contributing faculty, Tina Schmidt-McNulty, DHSc, MS, ACSM-CEP, RN, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.

Division Planner

Mary Franks, MSN, APRN, FNP-C

Division Planner Disclosure

The division planner has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.

Director of Development and Academic Affairs

Sarah Campbell

Director Disclosure Statement

The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.

About the Sponsor

The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.

Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.

Disclosure Statement

It is the policy of NetCE not to accept commercial support. Furthermore, commercial interests are prohibited from distributing or providing access to this activity to learners.

Technical Requirements

Supported browsers for Windows include Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 and up, Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and up, Opera 9.0 and up, and Google Chrome. Supported browsers for Macintosh include Safari, Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and up, Opera 9.0 and up, and Google Chrome. Other operating systems and browsers that include complete implementations of ECMAScript edition 3 and CSS 2.0 may work, but are not supported. Supported browsers must utilize the TLS encryption protocol v1.1 or v1.2 in order to connect to pages that require a secured HTTPS connection. TLS v1.0 is not supported.

Implicit Bias in Health Care

The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.

Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.