Cardiovascular nursing research review. 1969 to 1988.

In a review of 243 cardiovascular nursing research articles, eight themes of cardiovascular nursing research have emerged: health related behaviors, activity, cardiac output, family, adherence, patient education, stress-anxiety coping, and perception of care and treatment. Several conclusions are drawn from this review. First, the quantity of cardiovascular nursing research in the literature during 1985-1988 has more than doubled from the number of articles published during 1981-1984. Second, cardiovascular nursing researchers are following earlier recommendations to engage in theory-then-research to build a scientific basis for nursing practice. Third, the topical trends identified in this review are congruent with priorities in nursing research established by the American Nurses' Association Cabinet on Nursing Research and the National Center for Nursing Research. Further suggestions for cardiovascular nursing research in the areas of technological dependency (such as implantable defibrillators) and individual and family responses (such as risk factor modification strategies in children, and behavioral responses to cardiovascular disease in the elderly and chronically ill) are proposed.