Assessment of educational needs of heart failure patients in intensive care units: qualitative study

Findings Average age of the patients in this study is 69.21(43-80) and %64.3 of them are females. Of the patients who have participated in the study %30.8 of them have stage III, %69.2 of them have stage IV HF. After their diagnosis, patients have been in intensive care for an average of 6.7 ± 4.4 (1-16) times. Average time period for the disease is 9.4 ± 7.5 years. In this study 3 categories for the educational needs of the patients and in each category 4 themes have been determined. Category 1: Themes related to the educational needs of patients about usage of drugs, (i) effects of drugs and, their purpose, (ii) side effects of drugs, (iii) drug-drug and drug-food interaction, (iv) reasons for changing drugs. Category 2: Themes related with lifestyle changes (i) Nutritional characteristics and reasons for salt restriction, (ii) coping with the symptoms of fatigue and weariness, planning the activities, (iii) regulation of sleep (iv) coping with stress. Category 3: Themes about the educational needs of the patients related to the characteristics of the disease, (i) prognosis of the disease, meaning and interpretation of the tests, (ii) warning signs of the disease, (iii) compliance with limitations, (iv) control of the symptoms.