Nursing Science in Cardiovascular Disease
Self-care, quality of life, symptom management
Research aim
We aim to reduce the impact of cardiac disease on the lives of patients, their caregivers and on society. We focus on increasing the ability of patients to maintain their self-care, to monitor their symptoms and take appropriate action.
About us
Our main focus is on developing and evaluating interventions to improve self-care and quality of life of patients with cardiovascular disease. Self-care can be defined as a process of maintaining health through health promoting and preventive practices. All our studies have a multidisciplinary perspective and have patients in focus (and not primarily the health care professional who provided the care).
Our group studies different patient populations, e.g. patients with heart failure, patients with cardiac amyloidosis, patients before and after an implantation of a CRT or LVAD. We measure ’hard endpoints’ such as mortality, readmission and costs, but also patient reported outcomes (PROs) , such as quality of life and self-care (PRO). We work activity to develop psychometrically sound questionnaires or translations of questionnaires.
Current projects include.
– Improving non sedentary time by exergaming in patients with LVADs: Heart-eXg LVAD patients.
– Instrument development to measure self-care and quality of life (
– MOVE-CRT study: activity and self-care of patients with CRT.
– The STAR ((SympTom mAnagementself-caRe) study: This study is funded by the Netherlands Heart Foundation (dr. Dekker program).
– The RELEASE study: telemonitoring
– Early detection and prevention of acute events among older patients living at home