NCLEX Heart Failure Practice Test

The main concept is the path of systemic venous return into the heart. Blood from the head and neck collects in the jugular veins and drains into the superior vena cava. This vessel delivers that deoxygenated blood into the right atrium, the chamber that accepts systemic venous return before the blood moves to the right ventricle and on to the lungs. The left atrium, by contrast, receives oxygenated blood from the lungs via the pulmonary veins; the pulmonary artery carries blood away from the right ventricle to the lungs; and the inferior vena cava brings blood from the lower body into the right atrium.