The Effects of the Teach Back Method on Heart Failure Patients

Abstract

Heart failure affects over 600,000 persons annually across the U.S. The chronic nature of heart failure requires treatment and adequate patient education to prevent exacerbations and frequent readmissions. Health care dollars are expected to increase to $70 billion by the year 2020 to treat heart failure and chronic conditions. A quality improvement project was done within the 300-bed acute care hospital in west Texas. The heart failure patients continue to have frequent readmissions to the critical care unit that coincides with the national average at 21%. The Transformational Learning Theory was used to assess adult learning readiness for knowledge and health behavior change. The purpose of the project involved using the Teach back method as the education process with the Living Well with Heart Failure (2015) booklet as the teaching tool on (n=30) heart failure participants. The Quality of Life (QOL) measurement was analyzed using the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire survey. The project was a pre/posttest design which used SPSS analysis of the test scores. A paired sampled t-test was completed to determine if any significant differences existed between the tests. The results of the pre-scores (M=59.2, SD=17.2) and post scores (M=62.1, SD=17.9) determined the scores were not statistically significant, although the post test scores were higher with the determination of QOL. The readmission rate remained equivalent to 20%. Tools are necessary for measuring QOL in heart failure patients to assess learning or depression.