Abstract

Aim.The aim of this study was to determine the effect of patient teaching on self-care behaviors with media clips in patients with permanent pacemaker.

Background. One of the most common causes of death after myocardial infarction is arrhythmia. One of the methods to control the arrhythmia resistant to treatment is implantation of pacemaker. The studies that have been done on patients with electrical devices show that most of patients don’t have any information about how to take care of their device and need more education for self-care.

Method. This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 80 patients scheduled to receive permanent pacemakers at Rajaie Cardiovascular, Medical and Research Center in 2012. The patients were recruited to either control or intervention group through block randomization method. Data were collected using demographic checklist. The intervention group patients together with one of their close family members received one session of self-care education on the pre-implantation day. The session was 30 minutes long and contained the use of educational media clip. At the end of the session, the patients were given an “educational package”. Following implantation, the intervention group were contacted weekly for a one-month period. Finally, the variables were compared between the two groups via independent t-test, chi-square test, repeated variance analysis, and using SPSS version 15.

Findings. There were no statistically significant differences between the intervention and control groups (P=0.106) however, after intervention, a meaningful difference was observed in all these variables in the intervention group (P<0.0001).

Conclusion. The results of this study showed that education of self-care behaviors with media clip could have an impact on the self-care of post-pacemaker implantation patients and we recommend this method to improve patient’s knowledge and self-care behaviors and minimize the number of re-hospitalization in these patients.