Abstract:
Background:Non-pharmacological interventions are a valuable aspect of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease(COPD) treatment, leading to the role of nurses to become more and more important. An Education-Based Intervention Program(EBIP) consists of several steps that aim to achieve better health outcomes through guidingCOPD patients to reduce dyspnea symptoms and improve chronic self-care management skills. The aim of this study is to evaluate the dyspnea and chronic self-care management outcomes of EBIP compared to routine care.
Method:A total of 61 Stage II COPD patients that were hospitalized and treated in the month of January 2019 in a university hospital were selected for the study, who had been discharged less than one month ago and resided downtown. 51 conforming patients were divided into experimental(EBIP intervention) and control groups for a single-blind randomized trial. Data were collected using an introductory information form, pulmonary function test(PFT), the Baseline Dyspnea Index(BDI), body mass index(BMI) and the Self Care Management Process in Chronic Illness(SCMP-G) scale. There were no addition interventions to the control group. The intervention group underwent a 3-month EBIP intervention that included education, house visits and follow-ups through phone calls. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.0 with descriptive statistics, x2,Mann Whitney U and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. p\<0.05 was statistically significant.