Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Hackensack Meridian Health, Hackensack, NJ, USA.
Gerontol Geriatr Educ. 2022 Apr-Jun;43(2):239-249. doi: 10.1080/02701960.2020.1793760. Epub 2020 Jul 15.
Although home care workers (HCWs) are increasingly caring for adults with heart failure (HF), many feel unprepared and lack HF training. To serve as the foundation for a future educational intervention, we aimed to elicit HCWs' HF educational needs.
We partnered with the largest healthcare union in the US to recruit 41 HCWs employed by 17 home care agencies. Using the nominal group technique, we asked HCWs to respond to three questions: When caring for an HF patient (3) Participants ranked their responses by priority. Data were consolidated by question.
For question 1, participants ranked HF signs and symptoms most highly, followed by HF treatment and medications. For question 2, chest pain was most worrisome, followed by neurologic changes and shortness of breath. For question 3, participants struggled with encouraging patients to follow a heart-specific diet.
HCWs expressed a need to learn more about signs and symptoms of HF and ways to assist patients with HF self-care. These findings can inform the development of an HF training program for HCWs that specifically addresses their expressed needs.
尽管家庭保健员（HCWs）越来越多地照顾心力衰竭（HF）患者，但许多人感到准备不足且缺乏 HF 培训。为了为未来的教育干预奠定基础，我们旨在了解 HCWs 的 HF 教育需求。
我们与美国最大的医疗保健工会合作，招募了 17 家家庭保健机构的 41 名 HCWs。使用名义群体技术，我们向 HCWs 提出了三个问题：当照顾 HF 患者时（3）参与者按优先级对其回答进行了排名。通过问题对数据进行了整合。
对于问题 1，参与者对 HF 体征和症状的重视程度最高，其次是 HF 治疗和药物。对于问题 2，胸痛最令人担忧，其次是神经变化和呼吸急促。对于问题 3，参与者在鼓励患者遵循心脏特定饮食方面遇到了困难。
HCWs 表示需要更多地了解 HF 的体征和症状以及帮助 HF 患者进行自我护理的方法。这些发现可以为 HCWs 的 HF 培训计划的制定提供信息，该计划专门针对他们表达的需求。
