Burden of nursing activities during hemodynamic monitoring of heart failure patients.

BACKGROUND: Concerns remain about the burden of nursing care required to implement pulmonary artery pressure monitoring of heart failure patients.

METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of patients (N = 15) with a PAP sensor at our center. We defined three categories of PAP activity and estimated the nursing time spent on PAP monitoring.

RESULTS: During the 6 months after implantation, the median patient contact time was 67 (55-75) minutes/patient/month and the median frequency of patient contact was 5.8 (4.6-6.4) contacts/patient/month. The intensity of nurse-patient contact decreased after the first 3 months (81 [52-102] minutes/patient/month vs. 45 [29-61] minutes/patient/month; P = 0.005).

CONCLUSIONS: The intensity of nurse-patient contact increased significantly after PAP sensor implantation but declined after the first 3 months with medical stabilization. These data from our center may serve as a benchmark to project the nursing time required to support PAP monitoring in practice.