Nurses’ Experience of Self-Management Support for Hospitalised Cardiac Patients: A Descriptive Qualitative Study

Aim: This study explores nurses' experiences supporting hospitalized cardiac patients' self-management practices and associated factors that enhance the implemention of these practices.

Background: There has been less effort given toward activating the role of self-management in the early stages of hospitalized patients’ post-cardiac events. Knowing that nurses’ experience of supporting self-management practice and the factors that empower the application of self-management practice in hospitalized patients’ post-cardiac events are not well defined, exploring nurses’ experiences in the application of a self-management approach for cardiac patients and the relevant factors will identify areas for potential improvement in supporting self-management practice as part of nursing care.

Methods: A qualitative research design was adopted using in-depth interviews with eight registered nurses in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia who worked with hospitalized post-cardiac events were conducted. Registered nurses’ participation in this study was voluntary and approached through obtaining their contact information from the nursing offices in the selected hospitals.

Results: The defined themes in this study were directed by the concepts of Orem’s Theory, and four major sub-themes emerged from this study: initiation of self-management practices, self-management system, components of self-management for cardiac patients, and nursing practice issues.

Conclusion: Initiating self-management practices at early stages for hospitalized cardiac patients’ post-cardiac events ensured achieving better control and sustained practice. Before establishing any plan, certain factors need to be considered, including patient-related factors, healthcare system, and nursing-related factors. Self-management practice for cardiac patients requires the support of multi-disciplinary teams and a well-integrated system. Nursing roles need to be defined and empowered in the healthcare system to be able to support self-management practices for hospitalized cardiac patients.