Abstracts of the 9th Annual Spring Meeting on Cardiovascular Nursing / European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing 8 (2009) S1–S52 S3 Results: Referral patterns are different than for cancer patients with more respite and supportive care provided earlier in the disease trajectory, followed by terminal care. These early interventions provided respite for exhausted carers, and allow patients and carers to build a relationship with the palliative care team, whilst maintaining continuity with their heart failure nurse as key worker. Working in this way enabled nurses to accurately identify those patients who were entering the last months of life and provide appropriate supportive and palliative care. 99 patients were referred but only 80 received care due to a rapid response being unavailable, resulting in an admission to a palliative care bed, or the patient declined the service, or had a sudden death before the first shift. 74 patients (73%) from all those referred have died, 39 (53%) died within a month of referral and all apart from 3 died within a year. Patients received a mean/median of 89/36 hours of care. 55 (74%) of of those who died, did so in their place of choice. Conclusions: It is possible to provide a timely, home-based palliative care service for heart failure patients and their families. However rapid response, and better out of hours services are needed to avoid unecessary admissions. 20 Pilot validation of the nursing workload scoring systems NAS and CNIS in Hellenic coronary care units M. Gouzou 1 , E.D.E. Papathanassoglou 2 , C. Lemonidou 2 , C. Dimoni 3 , E. Kletsiou 4 , M. Giannakopoulou 2 1 Kalamata’s Hospital, Athens, Greece; 2 University of Athens, Athens, Greece; 3 SOTIRIA Hospital, Athens, Greece; 4 University Hospital Attikon, Athens, Greece Introduction: Nursing care work load, as well as the optimum nurse to pa- tient ratio have not been explored specifically in Coronary Care Units (CCU). Purpose: a) To assess the reliability and validity of the Hellenic version of the Nursing Activity Score (NAS) and of the Comprehensive Nursing Intervention Score (CNIS) in a Hellenic CCU patient population and b) To estimate the ensuing patient/nurse ratios. Method: A pilot study employing a descriptive, corelational design was conducted in two CCUs (in a Metropolitan and a country-town area). Trans- lation from English, reverse translation and a validity assessment by an experts group were performed. The TISS28 scale was employed as the gold standard. One hundred sixteen daily NAS and CNIS reports were obtained, from a sample of 47 patients, during 3 weeks. Internal consistency reliability analyses (Cronbach’s α), non-parametric correlation analyses (Kendall’ s tau_b, SPSS 10.0) and descriptive statistics were carried out. Results: Patients’ demographic data were: age 68.64±11.35; gender 72.3% men, length of CCU stay 3.48±2.13 days, mortality 2.1%. Cronbach’s α was α=0.76 for CNIS, and α=0.65 for NAS. NAS and CNIS measurements as well as NAS-TISS28 and CNIS-TISS28 correlated significantly (tau=0.51 tau=0.4 and tau=0.41 respectively, p< 0,001). Patient/nurse ratios per shift per day were estimated as 2.23±0.48 by NAS and as 2.6±0.52 by CNIS. Conclusion: These pilot results support the applicability and validity of the NAS and CNIS scales for use in Hellenic CCUs. Further confirmation of the optimum CCU patient/nurse ratios, is required. Challenges in Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome 25 Components of metabolic syndrome in Greek patients with essential hypertension living in West Athens area. An epidemiological study A. Karagkiouli 1 , H. Triantafyllidi 2 , D. Delga 2 , P. Trivilou 2 , K. Kontsas 2 , J. Lekakis 2 , C. Stefanadis 1 , D. Kremastinos 2 1 Medical School, Hippokration Hospital, Athens, Greece; 2 Medical School, Attikon Hospital, Athens, Greece Purpose: Metabolic syndrome is a clinical entity, which estimates cardio- vascular risk. Hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus or glucose intolerance and obesity are components of the metabolic syndrome. Aim of the study is the registration of metabolic syndrome components in Greek hypertensives living in West Athens area. Methods: We studied 407 Greek patients with essential hypertension visit- ing hypertension clinic due to uncontrolled hypertension (195 men and 212 women, mean age 56.5±12 years). Patients were either under treatment for hypertension for several years (group A, n=226, 96 men and 130 women) or they were first diagnosed and they should start treatment after laboratory examination (group B, n=181, 99 men and 82 women). In order to estimate obesity status of our patients, we measured body mass index (BMI) and we checked for diabetes mellitus or glucose intolerance as a cardiovascular risk factor. Both obesity and glucose intolerance are components of the metabolic syndrome. Results: Regarding total population, men were younger (53.4±12.8 vs. 59.5±10.8 years, p<0.001) and had a lower BMI (29.8±3.8 vs. 30.8±5.5, p=0.02) while diabetes mellitus or glucose intolerance were revealed in 50 (12.2%) patients (18 men [9.23%] και 32 women [15.09%], p<0.001). Similar results were found in group A as men were younger (55.9±13.8 vs. 61.8±10.1 years, p<0.001) with a lower BMI (30.2±4 vs. 31.8±5.8, p=0.01) while diabetes mellitus or glucose intolerance were found in 38 (16.8%) patients (13 men [13.5%] και 25 women [19.2%], p<0.05). How- ever, in group B men were again younger (51.1±11.3 vs. 56.1±10.9 years, p=0.003) with similar BMI (29.4±3.6 ´εναντι 29.3±4.6, p=NS) while di- abetes mellitus or glucose intolerance was present in 12 (6.6%) patients (5 men [5.05%] και 7 women [8.5%], p=0.002). Comparing both groups we found that first diagnosed hypertensives were younger (53.3±11.4 vs. 59.4±12.1 years, p<0.001) with a lower BMI (29.4±4.1 vs. 31.1±5.1, p<0.001) and a lesser incidence of diabetes mellitus or glucose intolerance (6.6% vs. 16.8%, p<0.001). Conclusions: Hypertensive women have an enlarged cardiovascular risk due to an increased incidence of obesity and diabetes mellitus. It is interest- ing that obesity and glucose intolerance are more frequent between patients with uncontrolled hypertension under medication compared with first diag- nosed hypertensives. Our results reveal the lack of hypertension control in a large number of patients as well as the absence of total cardiovascular risk assessment. 26 Men’s everyday tactics for balancing diabetes self care and cardiac rehabilitation C. Dale 1 , J. Angus 1 , A. Clark 2 , J. Lapum 3 , S. Marzolini 4 , M. Kramer-Kile 1 , L. Seto 1 , P. Oh 4 , J. Price 5 , B. Abramson 6 1 University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; 2 University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; 3 Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada; 4 Toronto Rehab, Toronto, Canada; 5 Women’sCollege Hospital, Toronto, Canada; 6 St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Canada Purpose: Despite the benefits of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) referral, enrol- ment and attendance rates remain low. Diabetic CR patients are linked to higher rates of attrition and inferior outcomes. Even though men represent the majority of participants in CR, the influence of masculinity has not been well explored. This paper reports findings of a qualitative study of contextual and gender based differences in participation and adherence to diabetic CR recommendations. Methods: We will draw on masculinity studies to understand social cir- cumstances, barriers, resources and strategies for diabetic men in CR. This study is part of a qualitative investigation of 16 men and 16 women recruited in three urban CR programs in Toronto, Canada. Data sources include semi-structured interviews after one month of CR attendance, a one-week activity journal, and a second interview to reflect on the events recorded in the journal. During both interviews, participants elaborate on the specific circumstances, issues and agency involved in managing multiple conditions. Results: “Critical incidents” of cardiovascular disease positioned men to at UNIV OF GEORGIA LIBRARIES on June 5, 2015 cnu.sagepub.com Downloaded from