A Clinical Practice Guideline to Improve Education in the Heart Failure Population

• Main Author: Wilks, Mailey L
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: ScholarWorks 2019
• Subjects: clinical practice guideline; health literacy; health numeracy; heart failure; nursing education; Education; Nursing
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7445; https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8721&context=dissertations

Managing heart failure patients in the outpatient setting can pose a challenge for nurses and health care staff due to the need to educate patients on self-care skills and management of disease. Several factors, including health literacy and numeracy, need to be considered when developing an education program for heart failure patients to promote self-care management. The purpose of this project was to provide nursing staff with a clinical practice guideline (CPG) that incorporated health and numeracy literacy assessment into an individualized education program. The Johns Hopkins nursing evidence-based practice (EBP) model, the situation-specific theory of heart failure (HF) self-care, and Wagner's chronic care model guided the development and implementation of this project. The practice-focused question for this project asked whether evidence informs a CPG intended to assess health literacy and numeracy assessment and promote an enhanced individualized education intervention in an outpatient HF population. A literature review using 20 articles from 2006-2018 was completed. Five articles were selected to review levels of evidence, and three articles were chosen to support the development of the CPG. The CPG was reviewed, refined, and validated by an expert panel of HF nurses and physicians. The CPG might support a positive social change in the practice setting by improving the tools for nurses to assess health literacy in the HF patient population and provide individualized education to influence self-care interventions.