CHANGES IN THE SELF-CARE KNOWLEDGE OF PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC HEART FAILURE IN THE CARDIOVASCULAR WARD IN NAM DINH GENERAL HOSPITAL IN 2018

Abstract

Objective: To describe the reality of and to evaluate the changes in self-care knowledge among patients with chronic heart failure in Cardiovascular Ward – Nam Dinh general hospital in 2018. Method: The one group pre-test and post-test educational intervention was conducted among 90 patients with chronic heart failure in Nam Dinh general hospital. The educational program based on the guidelines for self-care of heart failure by American Heart Association, 2014 and Vietnam National Heart Association, 2015 and the evaluation based on the Atlanta Heart Failure Knowledge Test – AHFKT.V2 with confidence index Cronbach alpha of 0.80. Results: Before the intervention, the total mean score of patients’ heart failure self-care knowledge was 10,41 ± 3,54 of the total 22 points by the scale, then increased to score of 19,38 ± 2,16 right after completing the intervention and retained at 17,92 ± 2,52 points at the time of one month later (statistical significance with p values of 0.001). There were considerable improvements in patients’ knowledge of each self-care contents right after completing the intervention and significantly remained in one month later. Conclusion: This study revealed the reality of limited self-care knowledge among participants with chronic heart failure. The educational intervention improved considerably self-care knowledge of heart failure for the patients within programme and needs to be implemented regularly by registered nurses.