Design and validation of educational material aimed at adults with Heart Failure

Abstract

Objective: Design and validate educational material aimed at adults with heart failure as an intervention of the disease centered on the decision making for the management of the symptoms. Materials and methods: Methodological study made following the Guide for the design, use and evaluation of educational material about health and the instrument of Specific Guidelines for the Evaluation of printed education materials developed by the Pan American Health Organization. For the design a group of 2 adults with heart failure, 2 caregivers, 2 nurses and 1 cardiologist participated. The educational material in its preliminary design was subject of evaluation by experts (n=7= and by adults with heart failure (n=10). Results: The design of educational material (pamphlet) is supported by the Situation-specific Theory of heart failure self-care and its empirical indicator is the scale of Self-care of Heart Failure Index. The experts and adults with heart failure who participated on this study agreed that the pamphlet meets the criteria of potential effectiveness on all the educational material. The scores obtained in the specific guidelines indicated that it should be used as designed and some evaluators indicated that the design should have some changes from the preliminary version. The production of the final version was made considering the observations of the evaluators. Conclusions: The steps for the design and validation of educational material are explained in detail and supported by the nursing theory and is made available to be used in the practice and research.

Keywords

• health education
• selfcare
• self-management
• cardiovascular diseases