Award Date

5-1-2019

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing (ND)

Department

Nursing

First Committee Member

Jessica Doolen

Second Committee Member

Angela Silvestri-Elmore

Third Committee Member

Jay Shen

Number of Pages

83

Abstract

Heart failure is a chronic disease in which a weakened heart is no longer able to deliver adequate blood flow to supply the body with needed oxygen and nutrients. Heart failure is the most common reason for hospitalization in the United States for patients age 65 and over, accounting for over 1,000,000 hospital admissions annually. Due to the chronic nature of this debilitating condition and associated symptoms, patients discharged from the hospital with a diagnosis of heart failure are at high risk for readmission. Effective self-care behaviors have been shown to reduce readmissions and improve quality of life for these patients. Unfortunately, evidence shows that nurses are often unprepared to deliver effective self-care education to their patients with heart failure.

The primary goal of this project was to implement an educational intervention within a multi-hospital system to improve nurses’ knowledge and comfort level in delivering heart failure self-care education to their patients. Two conceptual models were used to guide the project, andragogy and Carper’s Fundamental Patterns of Knowing in Nursing. The Nurses’ Knowledge of Heart Failure Education Principles Survey (NKHFEP) measured nurses’ knowledge of heart failure self-care principles before and after the intervention. A Likert-scale survey was used to assess nurses’ self-perception of heart failure knowledge and comfort in delivering such education. Post-intervention scores on the NKHFEP survey indicated a significant improvement in heart failure knowledge, and participant self-assessment of knowledge and comfort levels also increased post-intervention.

The class is now a permanent offering in the hospital system’s central education department. By empowering nurses to deliver effective heart failure education to their patients, this project has a high likelihood of improving patient outcomes as part of a multimodal approach to reducing heart failure readmissions.

Keywords

Education; Heart failure; Nurse; Nursing; Readmission

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences | Nursing | Science and Mathematics Education

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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