Heart failure in a rural area: an education and wellbeing programme to improve self-management

Abstract

Heart failure is a complex clinical syndrome and a heavy burden to both patients and the healthcare system. Maximising the capacity of patients for self-management is essential, and it is important to identify effective and efficient mechanisms for achieving this. In a collaboration between heart failure nursing and clinical health psychology, an education and wellbeing programme was developed for this purpose and delivered in Ceredigion, Mid Wales. Topics covered within the programme included self-monitoring, healthy lifestyle, behaviour change, and psychological distress. Comparisons of anxiety, depression, and self-efficacy measures pre- and post-group attendance indicated that this programme successfully influenced factors that are known to contribute to self-management. Clinical implications and limitations of the evaluation are discussed.