ability to perform self-care (Galvao & Paul, 2004).
Jaarsma et al. (2000) reported that patients who are properly
educated about their disease, treatment options, and
the consequences of poorly managed heart failure should
demonstrate increased self-care abilities and behaviors.
Increased self-care abilities and improved self-care behavior
can empower the patient to have better control over
his/her daily lives. Patients who adhere to their heart failure
treatments and take better care of themselves can be
expected to have fewer symptoms and improved functional
capacity leading to overall improvement in their
quality of life. Thus, the purpose of this cross-sectional,
descriptive study was to determine if there are specific
heart failure self-care deficits among patients with heart
failure at the time of discharge from an acute care setting,
which may be related to a decreased quality of life.