Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec 30:13:345-362.
doi: 10.5116/ijme.6399.eef4.

Experiences with cross-sectional healthcare and treatment in heart failure patients: implications for medical education

Anne Mette Kristiansen  1 , Helén Lönnberg  2 , Bo Christensen  3 , Brian Bridal Løgstrup  1 , Hans Eiskjær  1 , Helle Terkildsen Maindal  4 , Rikke Elmose Mols  1
Affiliations

Experiences with cross-sectional healthcare and treatment in heart failure patients: implications for medical education

Anne Mette Kristiansen et al. Int J Med Educ. .

Abstract

Objectives: to explore how cross-sectional healthcare and treatment is experienced a) by patients with advanced heart failure and multimorbidity and b) by hospital-employed healthcare professionals.

Methods: Individual telephone interviews with 18 patients and close relatives were conducted. Furthermore, a focus group session was conducted with four specialised hospital-employed healthcare professionals. Purposeful sampling was used and interviews were semi-structured. Data were analysed using qualitative inductive content analysis.

Results: Three main themes emerged from the interviews with patients and close relatives. These included: 1) A need for improved coordination to ensure continuity of care; 2) a plea for patient-centred care; and 3) recognition of the need to care for close relatives. Analysis of the interviews with hospital-employed healthcare professionals also produced three themes. These concerned: 1) recognition of the role and needs of close relatives; 2) limited resources for and difficulties in meeting these needs; and 3) agreement on the need for patient-centred care. Furthermore, we learned that perceived challenges are rooted in time constraints and the need for an adequate level of medical knowledge of chronic conditions and complex treatment strategies.

Conclusions: This study indicates that cross-sectional healthcare and treatment of patients with advanced heart failure and multimorbidity lacked coordination, was insufficiently patient-centred and did not cater for close relatives' needs. The study identifies patient-centredness and coordination of healthcare services _targeting patients and close relatives alike as critical to proper care, medical curriculum development and continued medical training courses.

Keywords: advanced heart failure; cross-sectional healthcare; hospital-employed healthcare profes-sionals; multimorbidity; qualitative study.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Beard JR, Officer AM, Cassels AK. The world report on ageing and health. Gerontologist. 2016:163–166. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnw037. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Buddeke J, Bots ML, van Dis I, Liem A, Visseren FLJ, Vaartjes I. Trends in comorbidity in patients hospitalised for cardiovascular disease. Int J Cardiol. 2017;248:382–388. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2017.06.106. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rahimi K, Lam CSP, Steinhubl S. Cardiovascular disease and multimorbidity: a call for interdisciplinary research and personalized cardiovascular care. PLoS Med. 2018;15:1002545. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002545. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Adelborg K, Schmidt M, Sundbøll J, Pedersen L, Videbech P, Bøtker HE, Egstrup K, Sørensen HT. Mortality risk among heart failure patients with depression: a nationwide population-based cohort study. J Am Heart Assoc. 2016;5 doi: 10.1161/JAHA.116.004137. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Patel RS, Shrestha S, Saeed H, Raveendranathan S, Isidahome EE, Ravat V, Fakorede MO, Patel V. Comorbidities and consequences in hospitalized heart failure patients with depression. Cureus. 2018;10:3193. doi: 10.7759/cureus.3193. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
  NODES
INTERN 4
twitter 2