PATIENTS AND NURSES KNOWLEDGE OF CARDIAC-RELATED SYMPTOMS AND CARDIACMISCONCEPTIONS

OBJECTIVE: To compare knowledge and reported incidence of cardiac-rela ted symptoms among patients with nurses' knowledge and estimated incid ence of symptoms in this patient group. DESIGN: Retrospective collecti on of patient data by means of postal questionnaire and postal survey of hospital nurses. SETTING: Five non-randomly selected hospitals in n ortheast England. SUBJECTS: One hundred seventy-five male patients wit h a first uncomplicated myocardial infarction (MI), cared for by 168 r egistered nurses working in coronary care or medical wards. OUTCOME ME ASURES: Reported and estimated occurrence of 11 common cardiac symptom s in the 3 weeks after MI and 15-item knowledge and 10-item misconcept ion scales about cause of and recovery from MI. RESULTS: The percentag e of nurses who correctly estimated the incidence of symptoms was low 25% of nurses did not make any correct estimates, and the mean number of correct estimates was not associated with nurses' experience or qua lifications. The overall mean score for the knowledge scale was 9.6 (S D 1.9) for nurses, which was significantly higher (t = 7.5, p < 0.001) than that for patients (mean 7.9, SD 2.3); the nurses' score was not significantly associated with experience or place of work. For the mis conception scale the mean score for nurses was 6.8 (SD 1.5), which was significantly higher (r = 6.85, p < 0.001) than the mean score for pa tients (5.5; SD 2.6); nurses working in specialized cardiac wards and more experienced nurses had significantly higher scores. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses should be provided with sound knowledge on cardiac symptoms and risks so that they can educate patients accordingly and, in particula r, can correct misconceptions about the condition, prognosis, and appr opriate lifestyle changes. Advanced-training personnel should recogniz e the need to enhance nurses' skills in patient education and rehabili tation; the importance of these skills also should be recognized in fi rst-level training.