Educational Interventions to Improve Heart Failure Self-Care

In this project, heart failure self-care skill level assessments were completed using a 3-scale instrument at baseline, 3 weeks, and 6 weeks. Each assessment was followed by self-care educational interventions consisting of disease literacy, symptom monitoring, a management plan, lifestyle changes, and an action plan. The initial scores for self-care maintenance, symptom perception, and self-care management scales were 67.3, 57.4, and 50.5, respectively. The scores at 3 weeks were 79.2, 69.7, and 65.7, and at 6 weeks, they were 89.1, 81.8, and 79.8. The results suggest that educational interventions led to clinically relevant changes and adequate levels of heart failure self-care skills.