Distractions when viewing in-hospital heart failure self-care videos and change in heart failure self-care knowledge

When viewing in-hospital heart failure (HF) education videos, internal and external distractions could interfere with understanding of educational content.

To examine if distractions when learning are associated with HF knowledge.

HF self-care knowledge was assessed using a validated HF knowledge instrument. Research nurses recorded distractions during video viewing. Patient characteristics were retrieved from a database. Demographics and change in knowledge scores were compared overall and by distraction groups using comparative statistics.

Among all 60 participants, distractions were not associated with patient characteristics. Pre- and post-video education, HF standardized knowledge scores were 72.5 ± 10.7 and 77.7 ± 10.5 respectively, p<0.001 and 5 (of 20) item scores increased post-video viewing. HF self-care knowledge scores were not associated with distraction frequency, but scores were highest in patients without internal distractions (p = 0.025).

In-hospital video education was associated with higher HF knowledge despite internal (primarily fatigue) or external (primarily nursing caregiver interruption) distractions.