Effectiveness of nurse-led counselling and education on self-efficacy of patients with acute coronary syndrome: A randomized controlled trial

Aim: Adherence to lifestyle recommendations, medical regimens and cardiac rehabilitation is poor among patients with acute coronary syndrome. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of nurse-led counselling and education using a person-centred care approach on short-term cardiac self-efficacy in patients with acute coronary syndrome.

Design: A parallel, two-armed, randomized controlled trial was conducted.

Methods: One hundred twenty patients who were hospitalized with diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome were selected and randomly assigned into intervention (n = 60) or control (n = 60) groups. In the intervention group, in addition to routine care, the nurse-led counselling and education programme included two face-to-face sessions, two telephone counselling and education sessions, using the person-centred care approach. Participants in the control group received only routine care. Data were collected using the cardiac self-efficacy scale before the intervention and 1 month after discharge.

Results: After the intervention, we found that cardiac self-efficacy, including the perceived self-efficacy to control symptoms and maintain function, was statistically significantly higher in the intervention group than the control group.