Patients Discharge Information Needs Regarding Acute Coronary Syndrome in Teaching Hospital

Background: Hospital discharge can be hazardous because discontinuity of care will increase the risks to the patient. By providing the customized discharge information, patients are able to have better understanding of their health conditions and enhance their self-management at home.

Objective: This study was conducted to determine the patients’ discharge information needs regarding acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and the relationship between demographic data as well as health-related characteristics with the patients’ discharge information needs among the ACS patients.

Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among 114 participants in the tertiary teaching hospital in Kuala Lumpur. The convenience sampling was used in this study. The assessment tool consists of the Cardiac Patient Learning Needs Inventory (CPLNI) and data was analysed using SPSS version 23.0 for Windows.

The results: The findings revealed that the discharge information needs regarding ACS was rated as high level with the total mean score of 4.25. Medication was rated as the most important discharge information (x̅=4.50), followed by structure and functions of the heart (x̅=4.43) as well as symptom management (x̅=4.37). All the demographic data did not have a significant relationship with patients’ discharge information needs except race. There was also no significant relationship between health-related characteristics and patients’ discharge information needs. 

Conclusion: The finding of this study, nurses should have assessed the patients’ information needs prior to giving discharge information that tailored to patient’s needs. 

Keywords: acute coronary syndrome; discharge information; health education prior to discharge.