Summary
Nurse-led educational intervention in patients with atrial fibrillationdischarged from the emergency department reduces complications and short-term admissions
Fuenzalida Inostroza CI, Ferró Ricart I, Siches Cuadra C, Ambrós Ribó A, Sánchez M, Cabrera J, Coll-Vinent B
Affiliation of the authors
Enfermería de Urgencias, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, Spain. Grupo de Investigación “Urgencias, procesos y patologías”, IDIBAPS, Barcelona, Spain. Área de Urgencias, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, Spain
DOI
Quote
Fuenzalida Inostroza CI, Ferró Ricart I, Siches Cuadra C, Ambrós Ribó A, Sánchez M, Cabrera J, et al. Nurse-led educational intervention in patients with atrial fibrillationdischarged from the emergency department reduces complications and short-term admissions. Emergencias. 2015;27:75-81
Summary
Objectives.
Patients and methods. Prospective study of an intervention. Patients diagnosed with AF discharged from the ED were studied in 2 groups. Intervention-group patients received instruction about AF, its treatment, precautions to take, warning signs, and pulse-taking. They also received an information leaflet. The control group patients were discharged
without specific instruction. At 30 and 90 days, the patients’ records were reviewed and follow-up telephone interviews were undertaken in order to assess their understanding of arrhythmia, the presence of complications, and whether they had returned for emergency care or had been hospitalized.
Results.
important arrhythmia-related complications were experienced in the intervention group (13.8%) than in the control group (24.2%) (P=.040). Fewer intervention patients had been admitted with heart failure at 30 days (0.8% vs 6.4% in the control group; P=.023); there were also fewer all-cause admissions at 90 days (11.2% vs 20.9%; P=.041).
Conclusion. A nurse-led educational intervention on discharge from the ED improved patients’ understanding of AF and decreased the number of complications, short-term admissions for heart failure, and mid-term all-cause admissions.