title: Improving health professionals' self-efficacy to support cardiac patients' emotional recovery: the 'Cardiac Blues Project'.
abstract: Many patients experience the 'cardiac blues' at the time of an acute cardiac event, and one in five go on to develop severe depression. These emotional responses often go undetected and unacknowledged. We initiated the 'Cardiac Blues Project' in order to help support patients' emotional recovery. As part of the project, we developed online training in order to support health professionals in the identification and management of the cardiac blues and depression. The aim of this study was to assess the acceptability of the training and its impacts on health professionals' self-efficacy.
  
  
  
  In July 2014, a 'cardiac blues' pack of patient resources, including access to health professional online training, was mailed to 606 centres across Australia. In the first 3 months after distribution, 140 health professionals registered to undertake the online training and participated in the present study. Participants provided information via a six-item pre- and post-training self-efficacy scale and on 10 post-training acceptability items.
  
  
  
  Health professionals' self-efficacy improved significantly after undertaking the online training across the six domains assessed and for the total score. Acceptability of the training was high across all 10 items assessed. Ratings of usefulness of the training in clinical practice were particularly favourable amongst those who worked directly with cardiac patients.
  
  
  
  The health professional training significantly improves health professionals' confidence in identifying and managing the 'cardiac blues' and depression. Monitoring of uptake is ongoing and future studies will investigate patient outcomes.
authors.affiliation: 1 Australian Centre for Heart Health, Australia.|2 Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Australia.|3 Department of Psychology, University of Melbourne, Australia.|4 School of Medicine & Public Health, University of Newcastle, Australia.
authors.forename: Barbara M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: 1 Australian Centre for Heart Health, Australia.|5 Department of Physiotherapy, University of Melbourne, Australia.|6 Department of Psychology, Deakin University, Australia.|7 Cabrini Health, Malvern, Australia.
authors.forename: Rosemary O
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Higgins
authors.affiliation: 1 Australian Centre for Heart Health, Australia.|2 Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Australia.
authors.forename: Lyndel
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shand
authors.affiliation: 2 Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Australia.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Page
authors.affiliation: 1 Australian Centre for Heart Health, Australia.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Holloway
authors.affiliation: 1 Australian Centre for Heart Health, Australia.|2 Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Australia.
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Le Grande
authors.affiliation: 1 Australian Centre for Heart Health, Australia.|2 Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Australia.|8 Centre on Behavioural Health, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Alun C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Jackson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001315:Australia; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*; D020377:Self Efficacy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D019616:Thoracic Surgical Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Coronary heart disease; anxiety; depression; rehabilitation; training