Polish Nurses' Knowledge of Heart Failure Self-Care Education Principles.

: On the basis of management guidelines, multidisciplinary treatments are essential in the care of patients with heart failure (HF) to improve quality of life and clinical outcomes.

PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to assess nurses' knowledge of HF self-care principles as a way to be prepared for educating patients about HF self-care maintenance and management.

METHODS: Nurses providing cardiology intensive care (n = 48), nonintensive hospital care (n = 129), and family practices care (n = 50) completed the Nurses' Knowledge of HF Education Principles survey. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Student t test, analysis of variance for qualitative variables, the Kruskal-Wallis correlation test, simple linear regression, and Pearson rank correlation for continuous variables.

RESULTS: Mean (SD) HF self-care maintenance knowledge score was 12.1 (2.7) that equated to 60.4% (13.4%). Scores were highest among nurses working in cardiology intensive care (12.39 [2.7]) and noninvasive care (12.3 [2.7]) and lowest in family medicine (10.74 [2.3]), P < .001. Nurses' knowledge was associated with level of education (r = 0.1399, P = .05), number of graduate courses (r = 0.1483, P = .05), and specialization in cardiac nursing (r = 0.1457, P = .05).

CONCLUSIONS: Polish nurses' knowledge deficits in HF self-care principles may lead to problems in providing patients with adequate education.