The Experience of Illness Control and Hospital Readmission in Adults with Chronic Heart Failure’
Presentation
Overview
Overview
Description
Heart failure (HF) is a progressive, chronic condition that has become a significant public health problem affecting 5.1 million Americans (Go et al., 2014). Despite advances in the treatment of chronic HF, there has been little improvement in hospital readmission among these patients (Ross et al., 2010). Managing HF requires that patients adhere to a complex treatment plan of dietary changes, medications, and symptom monitoring. Counterintuitive findings have been reported about an individual’s belief about their illness control (Ross et al., 2004; Turrise, 2014). However, exactly how individuals define illness control and in what ways hospital readmission affects their perceptions of illness control are not known.
Corbin and Strauss’ Chronic Illness Trajectory Model (1991, 1998 )is a grounded theory that describes the process of managing different phases in the trajectory of chronic illness guides this study. The trajectory is uncertain and determined by ill individuals and their caregivers. The trajectory and the work to manage it are shaped by events, such as hospitalizations.
The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of chronic HF patients with illness control and understand the impact of hospital readmission on their perceptions of illness control.
Applied thematic analysis is being used to analyze interview data. Participants are being recruited using a non-probability purposeful sampling strategy and have been readmitted to the hospital for HF exacerbation within 30 days of an index HF hospitalization. An expert qualitative researcher is consulting on data collection and analysis techniques. Results are pending.
