Journal of Nursing & Care

The Use of 4G Android Tablets for Enhanced Patient Activation of Chronic Disease Self-Management in People with Heart Failure

Abstract

Judith Kutzleb, Nancy Elmann, Andrew Fruhschien, Stephen Angeli, Angel Mulkay, Jarrett Bauer, Rohan Udeshi and Dan Priece

Problem The purpose of this research was to evaluate the impact of an advanced practice nurse-directed patient education approach to heart failure treatment integrating the use of an interactive 4G android tablet, will enable patients to experience enhanced patient activation and engagement in chronic disease self-management and fewer 30-day rereadmissions. Data source This was a prospective patient randomization, multi-center quasi-experimental design study of 50 patients comparing an advanced practice nurse-directed education of disease self-management and use of a 4G android tablet (TC) group (n = 25) and routine medical management (MC) group. The study length was 12 months. Conclusions Descriptive statistics were computed, and the intervention and control groups were compared for differences. Descriptive statistics using ANOVA was conducted to calculate for statistical significance of readmissions between the two groups at 30 days. T-tests showed that the 30-day readmissions rate was significantly lower for the tablet groups compared to the medical group at 30 days (8% and 28% respectively; P=0.010). Implications for Practice The results support that integrating 4G android tablet technology does have a significant impact on enhancing patient activation and engagement in chronic disease self-management and correlated to reduced 30-day readmissions in people with heart failure.