The Role of a Structured Patient Education Programme in the Complex Care of Patients With Heart Failure

Background: The 2021 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Heart Failure Guidelines give a Class I recommendation for all patients with heart failure to be involved in a multidisciplinary heart failure care programme in order to reduce heart failure-related hospitalisations and mortality. In addition, Heart Failure Guidelines emphasize the strategic importance of self-care and learning related tasks for all heart failure patients in order to improve prognosis. The current ESC Heart Failure Guidelines provide clear instructions on what to teach patients as part of a patient education programme, but it does not provide clear guidance on exactly how to do this. However, the position statement published by the ESC Heart Failure Association in 2011 and updated in 2021 provides significant assistance in implementing patient education and self-care into daily practice. Aim of the study: To analyse the impact of a complex, structured heart failure patient education programme on the acquisition and retention of knowledge related to heart failure and self-care. Study design:The data of adult patients hospitalised for heart failure at the Heart Failure Unit of the Department of Adult Cardiology, Gottsegen National Cardiovascular Center and at the Division of Cardiology, Department of Cardiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, as well as adult patients treated at the Heart Failure Outpatient Clinics of each Institute - and their relatives - participated in a complex, structured heart failure patient education programme on a voluntary basis were retrospectively and prospectively assessed. The aims are: 1. To analyse the impact of the patient education programme on knowledge related to heart failure and self-care; 2. To analyse the impact of the patient education programme on the retention of knowledge related to heart failure and self-care; 3. To analyse the impact of the patient education programme on self-care and changes in the practice of daily self-care act