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A qualitative study of women’s decision to attend cardiac rehabilitation and experience of the programme.

Year: 2005
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Background: Despite the proven benefit of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programmes, women have low rates of attendance and high drop-out compared to men (Missik 2001). Current research has done little to advance our understanding of why this trend persists, although gender-related issues have recently received greater attention in many clinical settings. This study aims to describe female participants’ experience of a CR programme and to explore how this experience may have a bearing on attendance. Methods: A phenomenological method was employed using qualitative interviews (Parahoo 1997). A purposive sample of ten women who had suffered a first time myocardial infarction and had attended and completed a Phase three outpatient CR programme were selected. Domicillary interviews were taped, transcribed and analysed using (Colaizzi’s 1978) approach. Results: Five central themes were identified which described this experience. These were: (1) Need support, (2) Thought of Cardiac rehabilitation is scary, (3) Chance to tell my own story, (4) I’m not the only one and (5) Ready to get on with life. Findings will be presented using verbatim quotations to describe each theme and demonstrate the relationship between themes. Conclusion: This study has identified key features of females’ experience of CR and factors affecting their decision to attend. These will be discussed in the wider perspective of developing more gendersensitive interventions in professional nursing. Recommendations may assist practitioners to develop CR programmes that are more responsive to the needs of women and facilitate greater awareness of gender related issues in nursing.
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2920945251
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