This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. © 2017 Journal of Advanced Pharmacy Education & Research | Published by SPER Publication 387 Nurses’ knowledge and attitude towards management of patients with heart failure Hala Mohamed Sanad Assistant Professor, BSN coordinator, Nursing Department-WHO Collaborating Center for Nursing Development, College of Health Sciences, University of Bahrain, P.O. Box: 32038, Salmanya, Kingdom of Bahrain Correspondence: Hala Mohamed Sanad, Assistant Professor, BSN coordinator, Nursing Department-WHO Collaborating Center for Nursing Development, College of Health Sciences, University of Bahrain, P.O. Box: 32038, Salmanya, Kingdom of Bahrain, Email: hsanad@uob.edu.bh ABSTRACT Nurses specialized in heart failure management constitute a vital key agent in assessing the signs and symptoms of cardiac deterioration, monitor therapy compliance, afford education, psychosocial support, and counseling. Additionally, they act as the healthcare liaison for the patients and their families at any stage of the disease. The study aimed to assess cardiac care nurses' knowledge and attitude towards management of patients with heart failure. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used with a convenience sample of 153 nurses. The data was collected through self- administered questionnaire. Findings: The study findings revealed generally low knowledge of the management of patients with heart failure among the nurses. Moreover, the nurses’ attitudes towards management of heart failure patients tended to be positive. Conclusion: The nurses do not have an adequate knowledge of the managing heart failure patients whereas their related attitudes tend to be positive. The deficient knowledge would certainly have a negative impact on the quality of their practice, and consequently on patients’ outcomes. They need training to improve their knowledge and attitudes, especially concerning heart failure disease condition. Bahraini nurses, particularly females with long years of experience need to be the first targeted by such staff development activities Keywords: Heart Failure, Nurses’ Knowledge, Attitude, Management Introduction Heart failure is a clinical syndrome in which the heart cannot pump adequate amount of blood to support the metabolic demands of the body [1] . The incidence and prevalence rates of heart failure have increasing trends worldwide, both in developed and developing countries, particularly with the increasing aging in various populations [2] . It presents a leading cause of hospital admissions [3] . Moreover, the high health illiteracy among the patients suffering heart failure poses more burden on healthcare providers to adopt strategies that can help these patients deal with their chronic lifelong illness [4] . The nurse role is of paramount importance in this respect [5] . During the last few decades, the nursing profession witnessed an expansion of the roles and responsibilities of nurses, with the ultimate goal of improving patient outcomes. Thus, nurses are now allowed to prescribe medications in certain areas and in some countries such as Nigeria [6] . Nurses specialized in heart failure management constitute a vital key agent in assessing the signs and symptoms of cardiac deterioration, monitoring therapy compliance, affording education, as well as providing psychosocial support and counseling. Furthermore, they act as healthcare liaison for the patients and their families at any stage of the disease [7] . These roles would lead to significant improvement in patient outcomes [8] . Furthermore, an Access this article online Website: www.japer.in E-ISSN: 2249-3379 How to cite this article: Hala Mohamed Sanad. Nurses’ Knowledge and attitude towards management of Patients with heart failure. J Adv Pharm Edu Res 2017;7(4):387-393. Source of Support: Nil, Conflict of Interest: None declared. Original Article