FAMISHED for support: recovering elders after cardiac events.
BACKGROUND
Heart disease causes disproportionately heavy burdens on unpartnered elders (widowed, divorced, never married) who have limited social resources to contend with recovery demands and complications resulting from acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Research suggests that the availability of social support improves recovery after AMI and CABG, yet functional support expressly designed to modify health and stimulate recovery remains unspecified. Advanced practice nurses (APNs) in the clinical nurse specialist (CNS) role who provide social support to recovering elders may be able to improve health outcomes for this vulnerable group.


OBJECTIVE
The investigators' aims are to (1) quantify the duration and frequency of nurse contact with unpartnered elders recovering from cardiac events and (2) describe the functional support provided by the CNS to the unpartnered recovering elder.


METHODS
Forty narrative accounts comprising 670 entries by interventional CNS APNs were examined using thematic analytic techniques.


RESULTS
Over a 14-week period, CNS APNs contacted recovering elders 16 times, with a total of 4.5 hours spent per elder, or 13 minutes per phone call and 80 minutes per home visit. Analysis of 670 entries demonstrated functional and emotional support that was captured in the acronym, FAMISHED.


CONCLUSIONS
Functional and emotional support from the CNS may enhance self-efficacy for recovery from cardiac events for unpartnered elders.
Rankin
Sally H
SH
School of Nursing, University of California at San Francisco, USA. sally.rankin@nursing.ucsf.edu
Butzlaff
Alice
A
Carroll
Diane L
DL
Reedy
Imelda
I
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass / Q000451:nursing* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000451:nursing* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D033262:Narration; D009720:Nurse Clinicians; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012847:Single Person; D012944:Social Support