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

Abstract

Objective: To describe the reality of and to evaluate the changes in self-care practice 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 interven-tion was conducted among 81 patients with chronic heart failure in Nam Dinh general hospital. The educational program based on the American heart association guideline for heart falire self care, 2014 and Vietnam National Heart Association, 2015 and the evaluation based on the Self - care of heart failure index (SCHFI) with confidence index Cronbach alpha of 0.80. Results: Range of score: 0-100 in all 3 areas (Self-care Maintenance, Self-care Management, Self-care confidence) were limited before inter-vention and increased at the time of one month later with the mean score of self care practice before intervention before and af-ter intervention for each field respectively: Self-care Maintenance from 41.52 ± 20.51 score increased to 53.90 ± 20.03 score; Self-care Management Maintenance from 35,56 ± 15,21 score increased to 52,96 ± 15,08 score; Self-care confidence from 50,45 ± 16,11 score increased to 59,31 ± 14,68 score (statistical significance with p values of 0.001). Conclusion: This study revealed the reality of limitation of self-care practice among participants with chronic heart failure. The educational intervention improved considerably self-care practice of heart failure for the patients within pro-gramme and needs to be implemented reg-ularly by registered nurses.