Self‐care in women with heart failure and the effectiveness of nurse‐led educational interventions: a review of the literature

stamp kd (2011)   Journal of Nursing and Healthcare of Chronic Illness   3 , 339–351 Self‐care in women with heart failure and the effectiveness of nurse‐led educational interventions: a review of the literature Aims and objectives.  The purpose of this review of the literature is to evaluate the research on self‐care behaviours of women heart failure patients and whether self‐care is improved by the patient’s knowledge of the disease, symptoms and treatments. Second, to determine whether nurse‐led educational interventions influence self‐care behaviours in women. Background.  In the past, clinical research has sampled mostly white, male populations, and the results have been generalised to the population. Less is known about self‐care behaviours in women with heart failure constituting a gender disparity in knowledge for effective management. Design.  Review of the literature. Methods.  A search of the English language literature was conducted using CINAHL, Ovid MEDLINE, Cochrane and PubMed databases and supplemented by a hand search of relevant reference lists from 1998 through 2010. Results.  Potentially relevant articles were identified ( n  = 56) by the literature search. A total of 33 articles were excluded because of lack of explanation of gender differences or non‐nurse‐led educational interventions; 23 original studies were included in the review. Conclusions.  There was inadequate research to determine whether nurse‐led education improves self‐care behaviours in women; however, the evidence shows that many women exhibit poor self‐care practices. There is a need for nurse researchers to address this deficit. Relevance to clinical practice.  Heart failure symptoms seriously impinge on a woman’s ability to live her life, as she would like, regardless of her country of abode. Understanding women’s knowledge deficits about heart failure and their self‐care behaviours nationally and internationally will aid in developing appropriate nurse‐led interventions to increase adherence to proven efficacious regimens, thus improving quality of life and decreasing the morbidity and mortality of women diagnosed with heart failure.