Nurse-led educative consultation setting personalized tertiary prevention goals after cardiovascular rehabilitation: evaluation of patient satisfaction and long-term effects

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the perception and long-term effects of an educative consultation performed before cardiac rehabilitation discharge. The patient and the referring nurse summed up the educative interventions, and filled a personalized form summarizing tertiary prevention goals. Fifty patients were contacted by mail at 11 ± 1 months, and called at 4.2 ± 0.2 years after discharge, to evaluate their satisfaction and assess cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) control. Mail response rate was 82%, and 90% of patients believed that it had encouraged them to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Almost half the number of patients declared that they considered the nurse intervention as positive. Telephone response rate was 54%. Most long-term effects were better than usually reported in the field of multidisciplinary secondary prevention of CVRF. Patients felt that this educational action was positive, even though highlighting this role of nurses seems necessary. Additional controlled trials are needed to provide rigorous validation of this strategy.