Abstract
Background: Νon-pharmacological management programs for patients with chronic disease severe Heart Failure (HF) syndrome which programs are managed by nurses with interventions that promote self-care, self-management, self-maintenance, empowerment, behavior modification, have shown encouraging results the reduction of re-admissions, hospitalization days and positive results such as the reduction of hospital costs of the provided health care the costs of the Health Care System.
The purpose of this Systematic Review (SR) is to examine all recent prospective studies that evaluate the impact of Non-Pharmacological Management Programs by Healthcare Professionals - Nurses in the Health Related Quality of Life (HRQofL) of HF Patients.
Material and Method: After searching for published studies in PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and Cochrane Library a total of 30 studies were found to meet the inclusion criteria in this review of which 6 systematic reviews, 15 randomized controlled trials, 4 randomized pilot studies, 2 experimental studies and 3 prospective studies.
Results: Nursing education and non-pharmacological management programs for patients with HF seem to be successful and effective in improving the self-care and autonomy of patients with HF but no correlation was observed with the improvement of HRQofL.
Conclusions: Further prospective studies are needed to evaluate the results of Non-Pharmacological Nursing Management of patients with HF in relation to follow-up time in the sample homogeneity, intensity and type of program to identify the most effective interventions to improve quality of life.