Fatigued elderly patients with chronic heart failure: do patient reports and nurse recordings correspond?
OBJECTIVE
To compare descriptions of fatigue from interviews with elderly people with chronic congestive heart failure (CHF) and data recorded by nurses at an outpatient heart failure clinic.


METHODS
Patients (N = 158) were screened for moderate to severe CHF and interviewed using a revised form of the Fatigue Interview Schedule (FIS). Seventy-nine of these patients were offered visits at a nurse-monitored heart failure clinic. Nursing documentation of fatigue in patient records (n = 56) at the heart failure clinic was compared to the patient interviews.


RESULTS
Results indicated poor concordance between patients' descriptions and record content concerning fatigue. Decreased libido was linked to fatigue according to the patients but not to the nurses' notes. Cognitive characteristics of fatigue were rarely recorded, but were more frequent in patient interviews.


CONCLUSIONS
Nurses must recognize characteristics and factors related to fatigue in patients and develop strategies to help patients cope with their restricted ability in daily life.


CONCLUSIONS
Using the words and expressions of the patients and the diagnostic characteristics of fatigue in record-keeping can support the nurses understanding of patients living with CHF.
Ekman
Inger
I
Institute of Nursing, Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden. inger.ekman@fhs.gu.se
Ehrenberg
Anna
A
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005221:Fatigue / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000451:nursing; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000150:complications / Q000451:nursing*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D009731:Nursing Audit; D009737:Nursing Records; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013548:Sweden