2017 Nursing Research Grant Winner Announced
Congratulations to Muna H. Hammash, PhD, RN on being awarded the 2017 Nursing Research Grant!
Muna H. Hammash is Assistant Professor at the University of Louisville School of Nursing Health Sciences. She received her PHD from the University of Kentucky and her MSN and BSN from University of Jordan. Her research is titled Self-Care Confidence Training for Improving Treatment Adherence in Patients with Heart Failure. You can read her full abstract below.
PCNA and the American Nurses Foundation have partnered to award a $5,000 grant to encourage the research career development of nurses. In support of the mission of PCNA, individuals whose research is focused on cardiovascular disease prevention may apply.
Abstract
Patients with heart failure (HF) who lack confidence in their own ability to perform HF self-care behaviors are usually not compliant with the treatment plan recommended by their healthcare provider and thus experience frequent readmissions. Therefore, we created “Now I am confident” (NIC) videos that aim to improve patients confidence to engage in HF self-care behaviors.
In this study, we will enroll 50 elderly patients admitted to Norton Healthcare for acute worsening of their HF symptoms in order to examine the effectiveness of NIC videos. While in the hospital, participants will complete a set of questionnaires that measure their knowledge about HF and their level of self-care confidence. A week after discharge, participants will have the Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS) for 2 weeks to measure their medication compliance. At week 3 after discharge, participants will have access to the videos to watch on their phones, ipads or computers. Also, participants will receive a phone call from our research assistant, every week for 8 weeks to answer any question they may have about HF self-care behaviors. Three-months after starting the study and for the second time, participants will be asked to complete the same questionnaires they filled out while they were in the hospital and to complete MEMS. Also, participants will be asked about any event of rehospitalization they experienced since their enrollment into the study. We will compare participants’ responses before and after watching the videos to assess the effectiveness of NIC videos in improving patients’ compliance to treatment plan. This study will give clinicians more knowledge about how to improve patients’ compliance to treatment by improving their confidence in carrying out self-care behaviors.