Comparison of the Effect of Self-Care Education by Nurse and Peer on Self-Care Ability of Candidate Patients for Angiography

Patient education and enhancing self-care ability are important for cardiac patients. The study aimed to compare the effect of self-care education by nurses and peers on the self-care ability of Candidate patients for angiography.

A quasi-experimental design with a pre-post-test was conducted in two groups of candidate patients for angiography in Shahid Madani Heart Hospital of Khorramabad in 2022. Sampling was convenient and the sample size was 56 people. The intervention included self-care education for the patient during two 30-minute sessions before and after angiography by a nurse or a peer. The research tool was Kearney and Flescher's self-care ability questionnaire (1979). Data were analyzed with t, Chi-square, and Fisher's exact tests at a significance level of less than 0.05.

The samples included 28 women (50%) and 28 men (50%), married (96.4%), with under-diploma education (75%), housewives or unemployed (48.2%), and with average income status (42.9%). The Mean ± SD of self-care ability in the two groups before intervention was 138.00 ± 12.56 and 133.11 ± 11.08 (P = 0.128), which after the intervention were reached 141.36 ± 11 and 139.11 ± 15.39 (P = 0.001). The two groups were the same in terms of education effectiveness (P = 0.216).

Self-care education by a nurse or peer increases the self-care ability of Candidate patients for angiography. The effectiveness of training by a nurse or a peer on self-care ability is the same. Therefore, depending on workload, the number of nurses, the ratio of nurse to patient, and the time required for caring, a peer can help or replace a nurse to educate the patient.