NURS FPX 4025 Assessment 4
[Student Name]
Capella University
Professor’s Name
August 2025
NURS FPX 4025 Assessment 4: Heart Failure
In this NURS FPX 4025 Assessment 4, heart failure is described as a prolonged disorder that develops after the heart output cannot keep up with the functional body request. This illness is linked to death, hospitalization, and a poor quality of life. The American Heart Association states that a history of tobacco use, hypertension, being overweight, high cholesterol, and a lack of exercise are risk factors for heart failure (AHA, 2025). Birth abnormalities, cardiomyopathy, and prior myocardial infarction are possible additional risk factors (AHA, 2025). Among the problems that patients with heart failure may experience are diminished quality of life in the heart, cachexia of the heart, arrhythmia, sudden cardiac death, frequent hospitalization, and blood clots, which highlights the importance of communicating research outcomes in healthcare (Malik & Chhabra, 2023). It is estimated that there are an estimated six million Americans who live with heart failure already (Roger & Clinic, 2021).
There is a high death rate amongst these patients despite the efforts put in place by the medical community to successfully treat this condition as the prevalence of heart failure has increased. Individuals with new heart problems have a 50% chance of surviving after five years, according to Roger and Clinic’s (2021) initial prognosis. It means that if a patient has been diagnosed with heart disease today, five years later, their chances of surviving are roughly 50%. It is also a heavy burden to both the patients and the health system in general. It is common that patients are readmitted to the hospital, which emphasizes the importance of sharing evidence-based practice results, as about a quarter of those discharged with heart failure will be readmitted within 30 days of a previous hospitalization (Oskouie et al., 2024). This leads to psychological stress on their part on the patients as well as economical stress. The United States estimates cost of heart failure-related hospital admission as follows, with a total amount of
approximately 11 billion dollars in the fiscal year 2014 (Bozkurt et al., 2023). This is indicative of the fact that efforts should be made to minimize heart failure-related readmissions.
PICOT Question
The PICO(T) framework was utilized for sharing evidence-based practice results on how to reduce heart failure-related readmissions. First, it was determined that patients with heart failure were the intended group of patients to whom the intervention would be administered. Telehealth modalities are the intervention modality that will be employed. Over the course of a year, data will be gathered to compare the selected intervention to standard treatment. The study employed a PICO(T)-question: In comparison to standard care for patients with heart failure, how does the initiation of telehealth sessions affect the frequency of readmissions to the hospital within a year
Sources Used
A systematic analysis of RCTs that looked at the use of remote monitoring to reduce the readmission rates of patients with heart failure as well as chronic bronchitis was one of the sources included in NURS FPX 4025 Assessment 4 (Stergiopoulos et al., 2024). The telemonitoring measures were remote heart rate, blood pressure, weight, weight, and remote oxygen saturation measurements (Stergiopoulos et al., 2024). Among all the RCTs that Stergiopoulos and colleagues reviewed, 67% indicated that telemonitoring has not made a significant difference in the readmission of patients with HF, which is important when presenting nursing research findings (Stergiopoulos et al., 2024). This paper, available in PubMed Central, was published in 2024 by Frontiers in Digital Health, an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal, and is important for sharing evidence-based practice results. The authors are credible sources in the field of medicine because they are medical doctors affiliated with either the Mayo Clinic or Johns Hopkins. The research topic of the conducted systematic
review, as discussed in NURS FPX 4025 Assessment 4, directly applies to the patient population, outcome, and intervention of the proposed PICO(T) question since it addresses the theme of telemedicine in its ability to decrease readmission of HF patients. A systematic review and meta-analysis that focuses on the need to define the effects of mobile health applications on reducing outcomes in patients with HF was also chosen as another source of evidence (Ni et al., 2024). Hospitalization rates were one of the returns that were taken into consideration in this review. In NURS FPX 4025 Assessment 4, the mobile app components were reminders, recording the reported symptoms and vital signs, educational materials, patient-individualized recommendations, telehealth visits, and social support access (Ni et al., 2024). Based on the research findings, sharing evidence-based practice results shows that mobile application use improves patient-provider communication and patient self-disease management, which helps decrease hospitalization rates and enhances the quality of life in patients with HF (Ni et al., 2024). The article is published in such a peer reviewed journal as Journal of Nursing Management in 2024. It has been identified with the help of CINAHL Complete database. Ni and co-authors are of the Department of Cardiology of west China Hospital. The other evidence source identified was a systematic review and meta-analysis study by Ramtin and colleagues (2023) that sought to examine and synthesize information about whether the application of distance education PoC had any effect on the readmission of patients with heart failure (HF). Within the context of NURS FPX 4025 Assessment 4, distance education will include education that is conducted through telephone or video calls, text messages, telemonitoring and individual education, mobile applications, and booklets (the latter hard-copy) (Ramtin et al., 2023). This systematic review and meta-analysis helped the authors conclude that distance learning, such as the use of telehealth, potentially decreases readmission rates among HF patients (Ramtin et al.,
2023). This research was found via the ProQuest Nursing Databases. The article has been published first in The Nursing Open, a peer-reviewed, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is a renowned publisher of scholarly material and provides an open-access journal. Moreover, the work was released in 2023 and it specifically focuses on readmission rates in HF patients, which makes it applicable to the subject of investigation and diagnosis at the given moment present.
Evidence Analysis
The reviewed evidence offers a good starting point in the response to the stated PICO(T) question: In patients with HF, what is the impact (introducing telehealth visits to the patients) on the presence of hospital readmission in comparison with normal care throughout a year? An example of evidence reveals that, according to one source, the application of the telehealth mode of telemonitoring was not statistically significant in reducing the rates of rehospitalization in HF patients (Stergiopoulos et al., 2024). Although the findings on the significance of telemonitoring for readmission rates were statistically irrelevant, presenting nursing research findings from other studies has recommended that alternative forms of telehealth interventions could be effective in lowering admission rates. In their systematic review and meta-analysis, Ni and colleagues (2024) found that the mHealth application, a technology enabling patients to monitor their symptoms, enter self-reported vital signs, participate in telehealth visits with HF healthcare providers, and access educational material, showed a reduced hospitalization incidence overall in their HF patient population, highlighting the importance of sharing evidence-based practice results. results of another systematic review and meta-analysis by Ramtin and colleagues (2023) showed that distance learning had been useful to decrease the readmission rates among HF patients. Ni and colleagues (2024) study supports the findings of Ramtin and colleagues (2023) because both have concluded that the level of distance education, such as mobile applications and the availability of telehealth phone calls and video visits, lowered the rate of hospital
readmissions in patients with HF. As demonstrated above, it could be concluded that telehealth has the potential to be valuable to curbing hospital readmission rate compared to the scenario where the telehealth modalities are not exercised. It has been revealed that telemonitoring became generally unimportant (Stergiopoulos et al., 2024). Nonetheless, as highlighted in NURS FPX 4025 Assessment 4, the use of mobile health apps and the available remote learning materials may help reduce the number of patients with HF being readmitted to the hospital overall (Ni et al., 2024; Ramtin et al., 2023).
Key Steps of Care
Based on the collected evidence, it is possible to intervene within care to prevent cases of subsequent heart failure hospital admissions, emphasizing the role of communicating research outcomes in healthcare. Directing the introduction of mobile health applications is one of the important measures. Mobile health applications may assist patients to self-report and monitor the symptoms, access telehealth educational and social support resources, as well as provide tailored treatment suggestions (Ni et al., 2024). The applications are capable of offering real-time indicators to the providers, which can benefit because interventions can be earlier and hospitalization avoided in some cases. The next crucial measure that can be conducted is the provision of more resources towards remote education to patients. Remote education by phone and video visits with clinicians as well as the access to informational videos can be offered (Ramtin et al.,2023). Applying the strategies covered in NURS FPX 4025 Assessment 4 can help reduce the rate of readmissions among heart failure patients, which will lessen the burden on the patient as well as the healthcare system as a whole.
References
American Heart Association (AHA). (2023, March). What is heart failure? heart.org. Retrieved March 20, 2025, from https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-failure/what-is-heart- failure
Bozkurt, B., Ahmad, T., Alexander, K. M., Baker, W. L., Bosak, K., Breathett, K., Fonarow, G. C., Heidenreich, P., Ho, J. E., Hsich, E., Ibrahim, N. E., Jones, L. M., Khan, S. S., Khazanie, P., Koelling, T., Krumholz, H. M., Khush, K. K., Lee, C., Morris, A. A., Page, R. L., 2nd, … Writing Committee Members (2023). Heart Failure Epidemiology and Outcomes Statistics: A Report of the Heart Failure Society of America. Journal of cardiac failure, 29(10), 1412–1451. https://doiorg.library.capella.edu/10.1016/j.cardfail.2023.07.006
Malik A, Chhabra L. (2023). Congestive heart failure. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430873/
Ni, Y.-X., Liu, X.-H., He, L., Wen, Y., You, G.-Y., & Igarashi, Y. (2024). Mobile Application‐ Based Interventions for People with Heart Failure: A Systematic Review and Meta‐ Analysis. Journal of Nursing Management, 2024, 1–14. https://doiorg.library.capella.edu/10.1155/2024/6859795
Oskouie, S., Pandey, A., Sauer, A. J., Greene, S. J., Mullens, W., Khan, M. S., Quinn, K. L., Ho, J. E., Albert, N. M., & Van Spall, H. G. (2024). From Hospital to Home: Evidence-Based Care for Worsening Heart Failure. JACC. Advances, 3(9), 101131. https://doi- org.library.capella.edu/10.1016/j.jacadv.2024.101131
Ramtin, S., Yazdani, Z., Tanha, K., & Negarandeh, R. (2023). The impact of distance education on readmission of patients with heart failure: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Nursing Open, 10(7), 4205-4215. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.1698
Roger, V. L., & Clinic, M. (2021). Epidemiology of heart failure. Circulation Research, 128(10), 1421. https://10.1161/circresaha.121.318172
Stergiopoulos, G. M., Elayadi, A. N., Chen, E. S., & Galiatsatos, P. (2024). The effect of telemedicine employing telemonitoring instruments on readmissions of patients with heart failure and/or COPD: a systematic review. Frontiers in digital health, 6, 1441334. https://doi-org.library.capella.edu/10.3389/fdgth.2024.1441334
