Con Confianza: Improving Heart Failure Knowledge for Spanish Speaking Patients at a Transitional Care Clinic in Southwest Arizona

Background: Heart failure is defined by the American Heart Association (AHA) as a chronic, progressive, and costly disease in which the heart is unable to meet the demands of the body, affecting millions of people worldwide (2019). A need assessment completed at Yuma Regional Medical Center’s Transitional Care Services clinic in Southwest Arizona identified Spanish speaking Latinos overwhelmingly lacked heart failure knowledge despite standard patient education and the use of comprehensive educational materials. In order to address health concerns in this patient population, a quality improvement project aimed at improving heart failure knowledge in Spanish speaking patients was conducted. Methods: This quality improvement project used quantitative surveys to evaluate the effectiveness of integrating American Heart Association’s (AHA, 2019) Spanish version self-check plan for heart failure management tool into routine patient education at TCS for Spanish speaking patients. Demographic, heart failure knowledge and patient self-management confidence levels were obtained prior to the visit. After the visit, participants were given two surveys to reassess their self- management confidence levels and determine their satisfaction with the educational tool. Participants were also given the opportunity to comment upon their experience provided insight of the usefulness of the educational tool, the project, and the TCS clinic. Results: Thirty-four patients from the TCS participated in this project. The majority of participants were male, older than 65 years, and had a less than or equal to a 3rd grade education. Confidence levels dramatically improved between baseline (66.4%) and post-intervention (90.6%). This demonstrates the effectiveness of this educational intervention which integrating an easy to follow illustrated heart failure zone tool. Conclusion: The local need to address Latino health issues is widely apparent and this quality improvement project revealed that the development and implementation of language and literacy specific patient education materials significantly impacted participant confidence levels in managing HF. Recommendations: Findings from this project highly encourage further assessment of baseline health and reading literacy and the use of language and low literacy focused patient education materials