Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology heart failure nurse curriculum

Abstract

Recent advances in care and management of heart failure have improved outcome, largely as a result of the developing evidence basis for medications, implantable devices and the organization of heart failure follow-up. Such developments have also increased the complexity of delivering and coordinating care. This has led to a change to the way in which heart failure services are organized and to the traditional role of the heart failure nurse. Nurses in many countries now provide a range of services that include providing care for patients with acute and with chronic heart failure, working in and across different sectors of care (inpatient, outpatient, community care, the home and remotely), organising care services around the face-to-face and the remote collection of patient data, and liaising with a wide variety of health-care providers and professionals. To support such advances the nurse requires a skill set that goes beyond that of their initial education and training. The range of nurses' roles across Europe is varied. So too is the nature of their educational preparation. This heart failure nurse curriculum aims to provide a framework for use in countries of the European Society of Cardiology. Its modular approach enables the key knowledge, skills, and behaviours for the nurse working in different care settings to be outlined and so facilitate nursing staff to play a fuller role within the heart failure team.

Health Care Professionals’ Perceptions of Home Telemonitoring in Heart Failure Care: Cross-Sectional Survey (Preprint)

“…HCPs competence and acceptance of the relevance of RTM is vital for successful implementation in the clinical setting [32]. HCPs are expected to teach patients and follow-up on remote monitoring devices [13]. Interestingly, although there were mostly similarities in the expectations of HCP in both countries, a higher percentage of HCPs in Lithuania then in Norway said they expected that introducing RTM into clinical practice will reduce the workload on the HF outpatient clinic.…”

“…Moreover, in accordance with a European medical education curriculum, HF nurses are expected to provide advice about and master skills for using remote monitoring devices. Part of the practical aspect of this education is to teach patients and caregivers about possibilities and limitations of using remote monitoring devices [13,14].…”

The sliding context of health: the challenges faced by patients with heart failure from the perspective of patients, healthcare providers and family members

“…Recently, the reduced risk of death due to academically prepared nurses for care has been corroborated in a study of patients in nine European countries (Riley et al . ). Of course, the Iranian people are deprived of community‐based care and supportive associations, which adds to their challenges.…”

“…According to the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology, the standards of delivering heart failure care are based on knowledge and skills, for recognising suspected patients in terms of heart failure and critical causes of its clinical deterioration, evaluating and monitoring common signs and symptoms, developing educational theories, providing an effective self‐care and lifestyle advice for the patient and education for his or her family, effectively managing pharmacological and device therapies, competently and rapidly providing care to patients with acute heart failure, coordinating care of the patient and his or her family at the end of his or her life, planning and delivering an individualised patient care after identifying morbidity in heart failure, and understanding novel strategies to manage an advanced heart failure, and playing a leadership role in heart failure nursing (Riley et al . ). Nevertheless, a gap is felt between the care provided to patients with heart failure in Iran and global care standards.…”

HerzMobil, an Integrated and Collaborative Telemonitoring-Based Disease Management Program for Patients With Heart Failure: A Feasibility Study Paving the Way to Routine Care (Preprint)

“…The fundamental role of heart failure nurses is particularly emphasized (15). Also, a recent position paper of the Austrian Society of Cardiology recommends multidisciplinary disease management programs with monitoring of high risk heart failure patients (16).…”