Promoting Patient Participation in Cardiac Rehabilitation – Free Online Module

As we all know, cardiac rehabilitation (CR) referral is recommended in international clinical practice guidelines given its benefits; however, use is suboptimal. The International Council of Cardiovascular Rehabilitation and Prevention (ICCPR; www.globalcardiacrehab.com), of which ISPRM is a member, developed a position statement to translate evidence on interventions that increase CR enrollment and adherence into implementable recommendations for healthcare providers. Recommendations were based on their update of the Cochrane review on interventions to promote patients’ utilizzation of CR (http://tiny.cc/s6fjiz).

promoting patient participation in cardiac rehab

The writing panel was constituted by representatives of societies internationally concerned with preventive cardiology, including Drs. Marta Supervia (lead investigator) and Ssu-Yuan Chen of ISPRM. Among the 3 recommendations were that to increase enrollment, health care providers should promote CR to patients face-to-face at the bedside (http://tiny.cc/i8fjiz). ISPRM endorsed this statement, along with 22 other Societies.

To implement the recommendations, a corresponding online course for inpatient cardiac healthcare providers has been developed, evaluated and approved for continuing education credits in several jurisdictions. The brief course outlines the nature and benefits of CR, as well as specifies which patients should be referred.

Most importantly, it conveys how providers can provide strong, positive CR endorsement to patients at the bedside (point-of-care checklist provided within the course to download as well). If you are delivering cardiac rehab, this is something you may want to share with the cardiac units where referrals to your program should stem. It is available HERE free and open-access.

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