Objective: This 3-year field experiment engaged 60 nurses and 282 patients in the design and evaluation of an innovative home-care nursing model, referred to as technology-enhanced practice (TEP).
Methods: Nurses using TEP augmented the usual care with a web-based resource (HeartCareII) that provided patients with self-management information, self-monitoring tools, and messaging services.
Results: Patients exposed to TEP demonstrated better quality of life and self-management of chronic heart disease during the first 4 weeks, and were no more likely than patients in usual care to make unplanned visits to a clinician or hospital. Both groups demonstrated the same long-term symptom management and achievements in health status.
Conclusion: This project provides new evidence that the purposeful creation of patient-tailored web resources within a hospital portal is possible; that nurses have difficulty with modifying their practice routines, even with a highly-tailored web resource; and that the benefits of this intervention are more discernable in the early postdischarge stages of care.
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/margaret_sebern/7/
Accepted version. Heart and Lung, Vol. 39, No. 6, Supplement (November-December 2010): S34-S46. DOI. © 2010 Elsevier. Used with permission.
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Heart and Lung. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Heart and Lung, VOL 39, ISSUE 6, (November 2010) DOI.