Congestive Heart Failure Sample Paper

Posted: November 2nd, 2022

Congestive Heart Failure Sample Paper

Generally all the articles identified heart failure as a gradually growing burden in healthcare in the United States and a leading cause of hospital readmissions and hospitalizations. Heart failure readmissions were also considered to be an indicator of poor quality of care which generates excessive costs for the healthcare system of the United States (Murtaugh, et al., 2017).  Readmissions have been associated with deterioration of health status from a social, physical, emotional and psychological perspective. It is for these reasons that researchers, stakeholders and clinicians are therefore increasing their priority in preventing readmissions for patients with heart failure through evidence-based research and innovative therapeutic approaches.  Congestive Heart Failure Sample Paper

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                A major strength of the article by Murtaugh, et al., (2017) is that it used a large sample size for the study which increases the reliability of its findings for applicability in different health settings thus suitable for my research. The study’s sample size was 149,955 hospitalized patients whom after hospitalization, were followed by a home health visit within 7 days. As an observational study, it provided the researchers with face to face access to participants in real life situations which is a guarantee for face validity and a much deeper understanding (Murtaugh, et al., 2017).   It also provided access to circumstances where interviews and questionnaires were inappropriate or impossible to use. A major weakness is that, since its study design heavily relied on observational data to evaluate the impact of intensive and early home health physician and nursing follow-up on readmission, the results might be considered as being too subjective since they rely on a researcher’s observations and clinical judgment (Murtaugh, et al., 2017).

Similarly, the study by Ong et al., (2016) was a randomized trial which used a huge sample size of 1437 patients who were hospitalized for heart failure between the year 2011 and 2013.  A large sample size in this case provides mean values which are more accurate and a small error margin. Besides, the quantitative and qualitative references used were less than 10 years old which is a guarantee for the validity of its findings and application in clinical practice. Based on these reasons, I consider it suitable for use in my research. A major weakness of the study is that only one intervention approach of health coaching through telephone calls and telemonitoring was used in the study. This reduces the chances of successful outcomes. Congestive Heart Failure Sample Paper

The study by Vasilevskis, et al., (2016) was specific to addressing a research gap to prevent readmissions among patients with congestive heart failure from previous studies and clinical practice (Peter, et al., 2015).  It clearly highlights some of the major challenges that currently exist in clinical nursing practice in the aforementioned population and how they impact nursing care, patient health outcomes, families, communities and the entire healthcare system which makes it appropriate for use in my research. Vasilevskis et al., (2016) used structured questionnaires as the data collection tool. Questionnaires helped to reach a large number of participants easily and economically favorable. Since the answers provided by participants were based on a Likert scale, it is likely that the answers were quantifiable for the study topic (Vasilevskis et al., 2016).  It should also be noted that, different interventions were used in the study to prevent readmissions among previously hospitalized patients with congestive heart failure. This increases the reliability of the applicability of the study findings to clinical practice. A major weakness of the article by Vasilevskis et al., (2016) is that the survey responses were highly dependent on the experience, knowledge and perceptions of the participants which were not the same.

Ziaeian & Fonarow (2016) in their systematic review article use qualitative and quantitative reference articles which were not less than 10 years based on when the study was conducted. In their discussion, they explore different interventions ranging from medical therapies to health system strategies that can be used to prevent readmissions of previously hospitalized patients with heart failure which makes it appropriate for use in my research. However, it fails to mention the exact period that the identified interventions should be applied for quality health outcomes.

Zuckerman et al., (2016) had clearly defined attributes which were the dependent and non-dependent variables to help achieve clarity. A major weakness of this article is that the study targeted participants who were 65 years of age or older. Therefore, the applicability of the findings is specific to this group and may not give similar outcomes/results when applied in other populations such as young adults, adolescents or children (Zuckerman et al., 2016)  Since my research topic has no age limits, this age limit contributes to the unsuitability of this article to my research. Besides, since the article used a non-experimental study design, its ability to draw a firm causal relationship between a readmissions reduction program and interest outcomes is limited.

References

Murtaugh, C. M., Deb, P., Zhu, C., Peng, T. R., Barrón, Y., Shah, S., & Siu, A. L. (2017). Reducing readmissions among heart failure patients discharged to home health care: Effectiveness of early and intensive nursing services and early physician follow‐up. Health services research, 52(4), 1445-1472.Congestive Heart Failure Sample Paper

Ong, M. K., Romano, P. S., Edgington, S., Aronow, H. U., Auerbach, A. D., Black, J. T., & Ganiats, T. G. (2016). The effectiveness of remote patient monitoring after discharge of hospitalized patients with heart failure: the better effectiveness after transition–heart failure (BEAT-HF) randomized clinical trial. JAMA internal medicine, 176(3), 310-318.

Rosen, D., McCall, J. D., & Primack, B. A. (2017). Telehealth Protocol to Prevent Readmission Among High-Risk Patients With Congestive Heart Failure. The American journal of medicine, 130(11), 1326-1330.

Vasilevskis, E. E., Kripalani, S., Ong, M. K., Rosenthal, J. T., Longnecker, D. E., Harmon, B., & Black, J. T. (2016). Variability in the implementation of interventions aimed at reducing readmissions among patients with heart failure: a survey of teaching hospitals. Academic medicine: journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 91(4), 522.

Ziaeian, B., & Fonarow, G. C. (2016). The prevention of hospital readmissions in heart failure. Progress in cardiovascular diseases, 58(4), 379-385.

Zuckerman, R. B., Sheingold, S. H., Orav, E. J., Ruhter, J., & Epstein, A. M. (2016). Readmissions, observation, and the hospital readmissions reduction program. New England Journal of Medicine, 374(16), 1543-1551.

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Congestive Heart Failure Sample Paper