Nurses' Knowledge Related to Heart Failure Essentials
Abstract
Heart Failure is a complex syndrome which continues to be a major health issue in the United States and worldwide. Strategies and educational interventions implemented by hospitals to reduce hospital admissions and readmissions for this costly chronic disease have not been consistently successful. Patient education is an important strategy for the management of HF to improve quality of life, optimize patient outcomes, and reduce the use of healthcare resources by reducing readmissions. The purpose of this program development was to increase nurses’ knowledge regarding HF education to be provided to HF patients prior to discharge from the acute care setting. A quasi-experimental program design with a pre and post-test intervention was performed on a 38 bed medical telemetry unit at RI Hospital a Level 1 trauma center in Providence, RI. Registered nurses were asked to complete a pre and post-test survey, Nurse Knowledge of Heart Failure by Albert et al (2002). Nine RNs out of thirty two (28.8%) agreed to participate and completed the pre-test, attended one of the HF education classes followed by completion of the post-test. Pre-tests scores ranged from 60-90 out of possible 100, with a mean score of 73.3%. Post-test scores ranged from 70-95 out of possible 100, with a mean score of 86.1%, an increase of almost 13%. These findings suggest that providing HF education can be successful in increasing nurses’ knowledge regarding HF education provided to HF patients prior to discharge from the acute care setting.