[McEwen's conceptual model in cardiac rehabilitation]

Health motivation is the importance individuals place on their will to persevere, which consequently influences their choice of lifestyle. This article focuses on a relatively new conceptual model that explains cardiac patients' motivation when it comes to initiating and sustaining healthy lifestyle habits. Developed by McEwen in 1993, the Health Motivation Model proposes the following series of variables that influence motivation: previous knowledge, perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, perceived value of action, background variables, internal aids/hindrances, external aids/hindrances and the catalyst. If nurses understand these variables and analyze the patient's case study, they will be better to investigate the origin of cardiac patients' resistance to positive lifestyle changes.