Self-care teaching for congestive heart failure patients.

1. Elderly patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) have a high incidence of mortality, morbidity, and hospital readmission. 2. Descriptive research of 41 patients with chronic CHF found that almost all patients could not correctly define CHF, less than half could correctly identify their medications, and almost three fourths of patients did not weight themselves daily. 3. The self-perceived reasons for hospitalizations included shortness of breath, swelling of limbs, exercise intolerance, and eight other symptoms. 4. Some of these patients were able to follow self-care intervention during their hospital stay, which included daily weigh-ins, taking medications at the bedside, ordering a low-salt diet, and identifying symptoms of CHF.