The Effectiveness of Nursing-Led Interventions in Promoting Self-Care Among Patients with Heart Failure: A Literature Review

Abstract

Background: Heart failure (HF) is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in the world. It is considered an international pandemic affecting at least 64.3 million people around the globe (James et al., 2018). Despite the significant advances in HF pharmaceutical, device, and surgical interventions, mortality and morbidity remain high. Self-care management was reported as one of the most effective strategies in the treatment of patients with HF. However, many studies reported low selfcare practices among patients with heart failure.

Aim This review aimed to evaluate and summarize research on the effectiveness of nursing-led interventions in promoting self-care for patients with HF.

Methodology: a literature search was carried out in the following databases: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane database, and Google Scholar. 20 experimental studies were retrieved, appraised by the Critical Appraisals Skills Programme (CASP) and the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) tools, and then critically analysed.

Findings: Most studies reported the effectiveness of nurse-led interventions to enhance self-care among patients with heart failure with a p-value less than 0.05. Nurses used a variety of methods including face-to-face teaching, telehealth, mobile applications, and telephonic follow-up, theorybased nursing education, empowerment, and teachback techniques. Despite the effectiveness of those interventions, nurses must be aware of other factors demographic characteristics of patients, the intensity of interventions and follow-ups, and the importance of a multidisciplinary team.

Conclusion: This review supports the effectiveness of nursing interventions. However, due to the variability in study subjects and the used interventions across the studies, more standardized research with larger size is highly recommended.