Learning needs of congestive heart failure patients

Congestive heart failure (CHF) affects approximately one-half million Canadians and five million Americans. Patient education is a vital component of nursing care of this population, with the goals of improving the CHF patient's quality of life, minimizing symptoms and hospital admissions, and reducing length of hospital stay. A review of the literature related to the educational needs of CHF patients reveals minimal research. The purpose of this study was to compare the perceived learning needs of CHF patients by patients and nurses, and to identify existing gaps between their perceptions. Fifty (50) CHF patients and 47 cardiac nurses were surveyed using a modified version of the CHF Patient Learning Needs Inventory developed by Hagenhoff et al. This instrument measured the importance of specific learning topics within the categories of anatomy and physiology, medications, diet, risk factors, activity, psychological factors, and other pertinent information. The results indicated that both groups found most information "moderately" to "very" important to learn. The patients generally rated all information items higher than nurses did. The most significant finding was that the nurses rated the diet category as second in importance, while the patients rated it last. The results from the study will be incorporated into a needs-based educational program for CHF patients.