Decreased Cardiac Output Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan

Nursing care plans are specifically designed by nurses to coordinate patient care between themselves, other healthcare professionals, patients, and their families. This article describes how to write a nursing care plan for decreased cardiac output, including specific examples.

What is Cardiac Output?

Cardiac output (CO) is the amount of blood the heart pumps every minute. It is the product of the heart rate, the number of beats per minute, and the stroke volume, the amount pumped per beat (cardiac output = heart rate x stroke volume). The heart rate can directly affect the cardiac output. 

Usually expressed in liters/minute (L/min), the average cardiac output is around 5-6 L/min. 

Cardiac output depends on the heart as well as the remainder of the circulatory system, veins, and arteries.¹

Common Definitions

Decreased Cardiac Output Symptoms

Knowing the signs and symptoms of decreased cardiac output is essential to developing a comprehensive care plan related to decreased cardiac output. Common signs and symptoms include:

• Fatigue
• Weak and decreased peripheral pulses
• Chest pain
• Decreased urine output
• Altered mental status 
• Hypotension
• Edema in legs
• Shortness of breath
• Abdominal pain ³

Reasons for Decreased Cardiac Output

• Congestive heart failure
• Heart attack
• Valvular heart disease
• Pericarditis
• Cardiac tamponade
• Cardiomyopathy
• Genetic diseases
• Arrhythmia
• Shock
• Hypertension
• Coronary artery disease

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How to Develop a Decreased Cardiac Output Nursing Care Plan

Developing a nursing care plan helps nurses and other healthcare professionals ensure that short-term and long-term goals for the patient are met. 

The first consideration when developing a nursing care plan for decreased cardiac output is to determine the patient’s goals. While parts of the nursing care plan are things you come up with, the nursing diagnosis must be on the NANDA-I approved nursing diagnosis list. 

According to the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA),  a nursing diagnosis is “a clinical judgment about the human response to health conditions/life processes, or a vulnerability for that response, by an individual, family, group or community.”

A nursing diagnosis is rooted in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid and helps prioritize treatments. Based on the nursing diagnosis, you’ll set goals to resolve your patient’s problems through nursing implementations determined in the next step.

NANDA-I separates nursing diagnoses into four categories:

1. Problem-focused: A diagnosis based on patient problems present during a nursing assessment.
2. Risk: A diagnosis based on risk factors that require intervention from a nurse or healthcare team before a real problem develops.
3. Health promotion: A diagnosis that intends to improve the overall well-being of an individual, family, or community.
4. Syndrome: Based on a cluster of nursing diagnoses that occur in a pattern or can all be addressed through the same or similar nursing interventions.

Determining the most important goals for the patient and the corresponding nursing diagnosis provides the basis to create a decreased cardiac output care plan that can best support the patient while reaching those goals.

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Decreased Cardiac Output Nursing Care Plan Components

A nursing care plan has several key components, including: 

• Nursing Diagnosis
• Expected outcome
• Nursing interventions and rationales
• Evaluation

Each of the five main components is essential to the overall nursing process and care plan. A properly written care plan must include these sections. Otherwise, it won’t make sense!

• Nursing diagnosis: A clinical judgment that helps nurses determine the plan of care for their patients.
• Expected outcome: The measurable action for a patient to be achieved in a specific time frame. 
• Nursing interventions and rationales: Actions to be taken to achieve expected outcomes and reasoning behind them.
• Evaluation: Determines the effectiveness of the nursing interventions and determines if expected outcomes are met within the time set.

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Decreased Cardiac Output Care Plan Examples

All nursing diagnoses must be NANDA-I approved and have corresponding definitions to help guide nurses in writing a nursing care plan.⁴ 

Other Nursing Care Plans

• Hypertension Nursing Care Plan
• Acute Pain Nursing Care Plan
• Constipation Nursing Care Plan
• Infection Nursing Care Plan

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References

¹ King, Jordan, and David R. Lowry. 2025. Physiology, Cardiac Output. Treasure Island, FL: StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470455/.

²  Ward, Susan. 2015. Maternal-Child Nursing Care. 2nd ed. N.p.: F.A. Davis Company.

³ Cleveland Clinic. n.d. “Cardiac Output.” Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/23344-cardiac-output.

⁴ Herdman, T. H., Shigemi Kamitsuru, and Camila Lopes, eds. 2024. NANDA-I International Nursing Diagnoses: Definitions & Classification, 2024-2026. 13th ed. N.p.: Thieme Medical Publishers.

⁵ Levy, Bernard I. n.d. “Impaired Tissue Perfusion: A Pathology Common to Hypertension, Obesity, and Diabetes Mellitus.” American Heart Association. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circulationaha.107.763730.

⁶ Hariri, Geoffroy, Jérémie Joffre, Guillaume Leblanc, Jean-Remi Lavillegrand, Tomas Urbina, Bertrand Guidet, Eric Maury, Jan Bakker, and Hafid Ait-Oufella. 2019. “Narrative Review: Clinical Assessment of Peripheral Tissue Perfusion in Septic Shock.” Annals of Intensive Care, no. 9, 37 (March). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13613-019-0511-1.

⁷ Berman, Audrey, Shirlee Snyder, and Geralyn Frandsen. 2016. Kozier and Erb's Fundamentals of Nursing. N.p.: Pearson.

⁸ Cleveland Clinic. n.d. “Hypoxia.” Hypoxia. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23063-hypoxia.

⁹ Gulanick, Meg, and Judith L. Myers. 2021. Nursing Care Plans: Diagnoses, Interventions, and Outcomes. Edited by Meg Gulanick and Judith L. Myers. N.p.: Elsevier.

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