Staff Spotlight

Carol Bjorkman, FNP

Carol Bjorkman has been a Nurse Practitioner here at HeartFirst for the past 3 years. She has more than 25 years of experience in the field of medicine and has always had a passion for cardiovascular care. Carol's love of helping others has carried her from Kenya to the Amazon on service and medical missions. The call to help others has also been answered by her own children. During the next year, Carol's oldest son will be going to Uganda, her other son is going to Kenya and her daughter to Thailand... each with their own desire to serve and educate.

Currently Carol is responsible for patient education related to our Heart Failure clinic. Heart failure means that your heart cannot pump enough blood to meet your body's needs. Over time, conditions like coronary artery disease and high blood pressure gradually weaken the heart leaving it too weak or stiff to fill and pump efficiently. The best way to prevent heart failure is to control the risk factors and aggressively manage underlying conditions such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or obesity. Carol has a deep rooted interest in helping patients with heart failure. "Building long term relationships with patients and helping to guide them in optimization of their medications as well as lifestyle modifications is very rewarding" Carol says. "The goal is to keep these patients out of the hospital and that's what we are doing." Carol doesn't just talk about lifestyle modification with her patients, she applies it to her daily life. "After advising patients for so many years, I decided to make the changes in my own life to see how difficult it really was. I feel better, have more energy and my stress level has decreased significantly." The outcome had even more impact than she thought. By incorporating better eating habits and establishing a regular weekly exercise routine, she was able to lose weight and increase her overall health.

If you have questions related to our Heart Failure program, please contact Carol at the clinic 972.939.8294.

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