Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a standardized telephone monitoring intervention in addressing the symptom experience and improving self-management ability in patients with heart failure.
Methods: A non-equivalent control group pre-post test design was used. There were 17 patients in the experimental group, and 16 in the control group. According to the protocol, patients in the experimental group received 15 to 30 minute-telephone monitoring four times, once a week for 4 weeks. Data were analyzed by χ2-test, Mann-Whitney U test.
Results: 1) The experimental group showed a significant increase in compliance with self-management compared to the control group. 2) There was a significant decrease in degree for 3 symptoms(DOE, PND, & continuing fatigue) in the experimental group, after telephone monitoring. However, the experimental group did not show significant decrease in the degree of the total symptom experiences.
Conclusions: The results of this study provide evidence that standardized telephone monitoring is effective in relieving symptom experience and improving self- management in patients with heart failure over the course of telephone monitoring.
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