The Effect of Teach-Back Training on Self-Care and Readmission of Patients with Heart Failure

Background: Teach-back training is one of the interactive teaching methods that assess the learner's understanding by asking questions and provide a proper educational context for behavior change. Involving patients with heart failure in treatment is a top priority. Objectives: Accordingly, the present study aimed to explore the effect of teach-back training on self-care and readmission of patients with heart failure. Methods: The present quasi-experimental study was conducted on 80 patients with heart failure in the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) and Post Coronary Care Unit (PCCU) of teaching hospitals affiliated to Zahedan University of Medical Sciences in southeastern Iran in 2019. The patients were selected via the convenience sampling method and randomly placed into two intervention and control groups. In the intervention group, self-care training was performed individually using the teach-back method in four sessions, each lasting 30 to 60 minutes. In contrast, the participants in the control group conventionally received self-care training. The instruments used to collect the data were the demographic information form and the European Heart Failure Self Care Behavior (EHFSCB). The EHFSCB was completed by the participants in the two groups in two stages before and three months after the intervention. The number of readmissions and the number of visits to the doctor at the end of the third month after discharge were recorded for all patients by directly asking the patients. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS-22 software, the independent samples t-test, paired-samples t-test, and chi-square test at a significant level of P < 0.05. Results: After three months, the mean scores of total self-care behaviors during the intervention were significantly different between the two groups (P < 0.001). Besides, the average number of readmissions due to heart disease three months after the intervention showed the positive effect of the intervention in reducing readmissions in patients in the intervention group (P = 0.002). Conclusions: This study showed that teach-back training could affect self-care behaviors positively and reduce the number of readmissions of patients with heart failure. Therefore, it is recommended that nurses use this training method to teach self-care behaviors to heart patients.