Grant: Randomized Controlled Trials: Mentoring

Educating patients following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) and valve replacement (VR) surgery is carried out to provide the necessary information needed to promote performance of self-care behaviours during the home recovery period. In spite of this, approximately a quarter of all patients in Ontario are being readmitted to hospitals with post-operative complications, specifically the onset of infections (28%) and heart failure (22%), experienced during the first 3 months of recovery. A possible reason for the high rate of readmission is the quality of the patient education intervention. Particularly, the mode, dose, and timing of delivery of the educational intervention may not be effective in promoting the performance of self-care behaviours, resulting in the development of complications and hospital readmissions. The purpose of this training experience will be to develop the skills and expertise to be able to design and plan a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate a tailored cardiovascular surgical (CVS) patient education intervention that will reduce the number of complications as well as hospital readmission rates following heart surgery. A mentor-mentee relationship will be established in which diverse RCT training opportunities, scientific collaboration, and career development will be provided over the course of 2 years. During the course of the training period, a systematic review will be carried out to identify the specific attributes of CVS patient education most likely to contribute to a decrease in the rate of development of post-operative complications, along with reduced hospital readmission rates. This review will be submitted for consideration to the Cochrane Heart Group. The findings from this review will guide the formulation and conceptualization of a tailored CVS patient education intervention which will be incorporated into a RCT full application that will be submitted to CIHR before the end of the training period.