Nurse-led educational intervention in patients with atrial fibrillation discharged from the emergency department reduces complications and short-term admissions

Objectives. To assess whether a nurse-led patient educational intervention for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) discharged from the emergency department (ED) can improve the patients' understanding of arrhythmia and its treatment and reduce the number of complications and arrhythmia-related admissions. Patients and methods. Prospective study of an intervention. Patients diagnosed with AF discharged from the ED were studied in 2 groups. Intervention-group patients received instruction about AF, its treatment, precautions to take, warning signs, and pulse-taking. They also received an information leaflet. The control group patients were discharged without specific instruction. At 30 and 90 days, the patients' records were reviewed and follow-up telephone interviews were undertaken in order to assess their understanding of arrhythmia, the presence of complications, and whether they had returned for emergency care or had been hospitalized. Results. We enrolled 240 patients (116 in the intervention group and 124 in the control group); the mean (SD) age was 76 (11) years and 138 (58%) were women. The intervention group patients remembered more warning signs of AF than did patients in the control group (P=.012) and they also understood their treatment better (P=.004). Fewer important arrhythmia-related complications were experienced in the intervention group (13.8%) than in the control group (24.2%) (P=.040). Fewer intervention patients had been admitted with heart failure at 30 days (0.8% vs 6.4% in the control group; P=.023); there were also fewer all-cause admissions at 90 days (11.2% vs 20.9%; P=.041). Conclusion. A nurse-led educational intervention on discharge from the ED improved patients' understanding of AF and decreased the number of complications, short-term admissions for heart failure, and mid-term all-cause admissions.