The Impact of Nurse Education on Heart Failure Readmissions and Patient Education.

Background: Heart failure (HF) has become a national concern, with approximately 5.7 million adults in the United States suffering from this life-altering disease. Improved education of these patients prior to discharge helps patients manage their disease adequately and reduce symptom exacerbations.

Objective: This quality improvement initiative aimed to determine the effectiveness of an educational intervention in improving nurses' knowledge of HF discharge teaching and documentation of this education in patient charts.

Methods: This project was conducted at a Magnet-recognized acute care hospital with 39 critical care step-down beds. Twenty-nine nurses employed on the step-down unit participated in the educational intervention. Pre/post nurse knowledge and chart review data were analyzed.

Results: There was a statistically significant increase in the percentage of patients receiving HF education from unit nurses from preintervention 77.0% (n = 81) to postintervention 96.4% (n = 138) (p < .001). There was also a statistically significant increase in the mean number of days patients were educated from 1.64 to 2.58 days (p < .001). Nurse knowledge also increased from pretest (69.7%) to posttest scores (100%) (p < .001).

Conclusions: Providing HF educational opportunities enhanced nurse knowledge and increased their documentation of HF education in patient charts.

Implications for nursing: Nurse educators may use the study results to improve nurse education and practices aimed at reducing HF readmissions.