Nurses' and patients' perceptions of the learning needs of post-myocardial infarction patients

Abstract

A descriptive non-experimental research design, using self-administered questionnaires and structured interviews, was undertaken to investigate nurses' and patients' perceptions of the learning needs of post-MI patients in a hospital setting. While exploring these perceptions, the study also sought to find out how much importance these subjects attached to different categories and informational items of educational content post-MI. Convenience sampling was used to recruit nine CCU nurses and five post-MI patients. A 100% response rate was achieved. Findings revealed that both nurses and patients rated all informational items from 'moderately important' to 'important' for post-MI patients to learn during hospitalisation. Results also showed that post-MI patients perceived knowledge related to survival as being of prime importance, while they rated informational items related to reasons or explanations for events as least important. CCU nurses rated 'psychological factors' as a primary concern for patients to learn and 'physical activity' as the least important to learn. The findings of the study are discussed, and several recommendations for practice and further research are made.