Cardiovascular Patient Education Based on Andragogy: A Protocol for a Convergent Parallel Mixed Methods Study

Abstract

Background: Patient education is a critical aspect of patient care and is considered as one of the important part of self-care and health promotion. The aim of this paper is to report a protocol for a convergent parallel mixed methods study that set out to assessment of patient education based on principles of andragogy in CVD patients. Final purpose of the study is to offer strategies based on Andragogy for improving patient education for health care providers. Methods: This is a convergent parallel mixed methods design. The study has two parallel phases. During the quantitative phase, a cross-sectional survey of a sample of CVD patients from one of the heart hospitals in Tehran, Iran, will be conducted using the random sampling method. Data will be collected by a self-made questionnaire based on andragogy including items on demographic information and items on patients’ perceptions on patient education based on andragogy. Psychometric properties of the instrument will be determined. The data will be analyzed using SPSS 16. In the qualitative phase, a purposeful sampling strategy will be used from informative patients who have sufficient experience of the education process. Data collection in qualitative phase will be predominately by individual in-depth interviews. A quality-ative directed content analysis approach will be undertaken to develop a detailed understanding of patient education. In the mixed part of the convergent type, results of two sets of data are compared or merged to see if the findings confirm or disconfirm each other. In this section, the similarities between quantitative and qualitative results on assessing patient education based on Andragogy are discussed and adapted to each other. Conclusion: The findings of this study will provide information on defects in patient education and be implemented to develop an education program or Curriculum for health care providers on patient education.