Nursing Therapeutics Education and Heart Failure (HF): an Experimental Study

Purpose: Heart Failure (HF) is a clinical multifactorial syndrome, it can cause arrhythmias for which international guidelines suggest the implantation of an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD). The educational nursing program would improve clinical outcomes in patients with HF and ICD like control their sickness, known and acknowledge symptoms, improve their skills to self-care.

The main aim of this study is to assess how much the nursing-therapeutics skills and an educational intervention, in patients with HF during the follow-up period after the implantation of ICD reduces clinical costs, re-hospitalizations, and mortality at 180 days.

Methods: The investigators start a multicenter randomized clinical trial. The sample is made of 128 subjects (64 patients treatment group and 64 control group). The investigators measured the self-care level administering to HF patients the "Self-Care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) v. 6.2", and the self-perception of own life quality using a Numeric Rating Scale from 0 to 100. Secondary outcomes recorded are i) the numbers of accesses to the ED (Emergency Department) and/or hospitalizations during the follow-up period, ii) mortality rate due to HF, and iii) infection rate of the device pocket.

Data Analysis: Categorical variables will be presented in terms of frequencies and percentages. The statistical power was fixed at the 80%. Data will be considered significant for a p-value ≤ 0.05. The Cox proportional hazards model will be used to analyze mortality in subjects involved in the educational program.