Effect of Heart Failure Education during Hospitalization on Reducing Readmissions

Introduction

Heart Failure (HF) is an issue that has been in existence for a long while, and many people have been trying to figure out how it can be eliminated from the society and also how it can be handled by those people who are prone to it. This is a chronic disease that is in progression and has been reported to affect over 5 million people (Clark & Davilla, 2015). This number is projected to increase in future as the population changes regarding age. The cost of managing HF is increasing now and then, and this can be seen from the data that was collected by the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) (Clarkson, Schaffer, & Clarkson, 2017). There have been attempts to find a way of improving the situation by offering people with training on the way they can manage the condition as a way of reducing the cases of readmission.

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Data that was collected in the year 2006 showed that about one-fourth of the Medicare beneficiaries who had been discharged from the hospital experienced a case of heart failure again after 30 days (Dunbar, Clark & Higgins, 2016). Most of the readmissions were not planned, and this shows that the people needed to be educated as they were undergoing the hospitalization process. In that case, there has been a need to make sure that skilled nursing services are availed to the hospitals, and this goes along with the Evidence-Based Practice (EBP). For the hospital readmissions to reduce concerning cases of heart failure, the patients need to be educated on how to manage the situation and also how to stay away of incidences that are likely to lead to such cases.

For cases of heart failure readmissions to reduce, there will be a need to make sure that all the initiatives that are attached to it are implemented (Golden, 2016). In this case, some hospitals will be selected as they are the ones that provide an environment where observations will be carried out concerning the patients that have been diagnosed with the issue. The education, in this case, will be to train the patients on how to cope with the situation when it is about to occur and also how to say away of from all the environmental factors that are likely to lead to heart failure.

Patients diagnosed with heart failure are usually those who have tremendous cases of stress and also those who have been shocked by an event that is happening in the life or others' (Jaarsma, 2018). In that case, they are supposed to be well taken care of so that they learn how to control themselves when they are in situations of extreme happiness, and also they have to deal with cases of extreme sadness. They need to have someone who is ready to motive them to become happy when they tend to become sad and also one who will stabilize their situation if they seem to show extended periods of happiness. In this way, the readmissions will not occur after a short period as they will now have a clue on how it supposed to be done.

Educating the patients before hospitalization will make them be able to withstand all the stress and pressures that they have had in life (Koelling, 2015). This will be seen from the perspective of the environmental factors that have been known to cause the heart failure. The patients will have to make sure that they train on how to hand cases of depression and stress. They should be able to tolerate all changes that they undergo in life and try living healthy lives regardless of the fact that they have already been diagnosed with a case of heart failure. In fact, they should be made to stay around people who have been diagnosed with the same issue so that they can get an education on how such people have been able to survive when looked from all angles.

Educating the patients on how to accommodate situations that lead to heart failure is supposed to be maintained at all times (Krumholz, 2014). This is because some people have lost their lives due to heart failure and when looked deeply it comes out that it was a situation that could have been prevented or even handled. Education is an evidence-based practice, and it has been found to be effective when it comes to reducing cases of readmission among people who have been treated for heart failure. Education instills some knowledge in the patients, and the result is that they end up practicing all they have grasped rapidly.

Conclusion

Education should not only be provided to the people who have been diagnosed with heart failure, but it should be available to all people in the society (Opsha & Kane, 2017). The society members are supposed to be educated on how to handle those who have signs of heart failure and also those who have been discharged from the medical centers. This will be done with the aim of making everyone to be aware of all the appropriate measure that should be taken.

References

Clark, A. P., & Davilla, A. (2015). "Health Status and Self-care outcomes following an education-support Intervention for people with chronic heart failure." The Journal of cardiovascular nursing, 30.

Clarkson, J. N., Schaffer, S. D., & Clarkson, J. J. (2017). "Effects of an interprofessional hearth failure education program on hospital readmissions." Journal of Healthcare Quality, 39(2), 78-84

Dunbar, S. B., Clark, P. C., & Higgins, M. (2016). "Family partnership and education interventions to reduce dietary sodium by patients with heart failure differ by family functioning." Heart & Lung: The Journal of Acute and Critical Care.

Golden, S. (2016). "The Effect of Heart Failure Education on Knowledge and Readmission." Evidence Based Practice Projects Reports.

Jaarsma, T. (2018). "Effects of education and support on self-care and resource utilization in patients with heart failure." European heart Journal.

Koelling, T. M. (2015). "Discharge education improves clinical outcomes in patients with chronic heart failure." Circulation.

Krumholz, H. M. (2014). "Randomized trial on education and support intervention to prevent readmission of patients with heart failure." Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Opsha, Y., & Kane, R. (2017). "Interprofessional Collaboration between Nursing and Pharmacy to Optimize Inpatient Heart Failure (HF) Education." Journal of Cardiac Failure, 23(8), S97