The Effectiveness of Nursing Education on Clinical Outcomes of Patients With Heart Failure: A Systematic Review

Many nursing educational approaches have been applied on patients with heart failure (HF) to improve their outcomes. The results of these approaches on outcomes of patients with HF remain controversial. The aim of this study was to highlight the importance of nursing education to improve the outcomes of patients with HF, such as self-care behaviour, quality of life, mortality, readmission and hospitalization rates. A systematic review was conducted in the MEDLINE database on investigations punished from 2000 to 2012. The search terms used were self-care, heart failure, nursing, and education. A total of 22 studies complied with the eligibility criteria for this review. The findings of the reviewed studies showed that self-care behaviour of patients who received nursing education improved significantly. No significant improvement was noticed in the health-related quality of life. Additionally, there was no significant reduction in readmission, hospitalization and mortality rates of patients after implementing this educational process. The effectiveness of nursing education on self-care behaviour of HF patients was clearly demonstrated. Methodological differences in development and implementation of education programs, made the comparison between the results of the studies difficult.