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The Article in Brief
Managing Patients With Heart Failure: A Qualitative Study of Multidisciplinary Teams With Specialist Heart Failure Nurses
Margaret Glogowska , and colleagues
Background Recognizing that management of patients with heart failure is uniquely challenging, researchers in the United Kingdom explored the perceptions and experiences of clinicians working in multidisciplinary teams that include specialist heart failure nurses whose serve as caseworkers. These experienced senior nurses become involved with patients at the initial diagnosis of heart failure and continue for the course of the patients' illness, offering medical, psychological, and emotional support.
What This Study Found The 24 clinicians interviewed identified two areas that represent particular challenges when working with heart failure patients: 1) communication with patients, in particular, explaining the diagnosis and helping patients understand the condition, and 2) communication within the care team to coordinate multidisciplinary involvement in managing patients' treatment regimens. All of the interviewed clinicians regarded specialist heart failure nurses as the lead clinicians for their patients, helping to ensure coordination, continuity, and quality of care. The nurses were perceived as being able to bridge the gap between primary and secondary care by ensuring recommendations from specialist physicians were acted upon and by taking the lead in medication issues so that prescribing decisions reflected input from secondary care providers.
Implications
- These findings highlight the critical role of specialist heart failure nurses in delivering tailored education to patients and facilitating better liaison among clinicians to ensure better quality of care. According to the authors, the way in which these nurses serve as caseworkers is vital in ensuring coordination and continuity of care for heart failure patients.