Graduation Semester and Year
Fall 2024
Language
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice
Department
Nursing
First Advisor
Dr. Kristine Cope
Abstract
Abstract
Background: Heart failure (HF) is a chronic condition with high readmission rates, often due to inadequate patient knowledge about home care and symptom management. Individualized patient education combined with standardized approaches could improve patient outcomes.
Objective: This project’s goal was to determine if using individual patient knowledge to create a personalized education along with standard HF education would improve patient HF knowledge, improve home management and decrease HF readmission rates.
Methods: This pilot quality improvement (QI) project was conducted in an acute care hospital using a convenience sample of 29 patients admitted due to a HF exacerbation using pre-posttest design. Pre-education HF knowledge tests were used to create HF education with each patient and coupled with microlearning (ML) and teach-back (TB) sessions. Post-education knowledge assessments were completed 30 days after discharge to measure knowledge retention and readmission rates were tracked.
Results: Post-test scores showed significant improvement in post-discharge HF knowledge (p < .001), with 8 out of 9 questions indicating positive gains with only 6 of the 29 patients given the individualized education readmitting in the 30-day period.
Conclusion: Individualized education may significantly improve patient knowledge retention potentially reducing readmissions in HF patients. Using patient disease-specific knowledge assessments to guide education has the potential to improve outcomes across a broader patient population. A larger-scale QI project or controlled group study over time that integrates the knowledge assessment into the admission may provide more robust evidence and demonstrate greater statistical significance.
Keywords
Heart Failure Education, Knowledge Assessments, Shared-Decision Making, Decreasing Readmission, Individualizing Chronic Disease Education
Disciplines
Cardiology | Cardiovascular Diseases | Critical Care Nursing | Family Practice Nursing | Geriatric Nursing | Internal Medicine
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Andersen, Melissa M., "Individualizing Patient Education to Reduce Heart Failure Readmissions" (2024). Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects. 87.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/nursing_dnpprojects/87
Included in
Cardiology Commons, Cardiovascular Diseases Commons, Critical Care Nursing Commons, Family Practice Nursing Commons, Geriatric Nursing Commons, Internal Medicine Commons
