IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jocnur/v21y2012i3-4p311-321.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Living with life‐saving technology – coping strategies in implantable cardioverter defibrillators recipients

Author

Listed:
  • Inger Flemme
  • Ingela Johansson
  • Anna Strömberg

Abstract

Aims. To describe coping strategies and coping effectiveness in recipients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator and to explore factors influencing coping. Background. Implantable cardioverter defibrillators are documented as saving lives and are used to treat ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation. Despite the implantable cardioverter defibrillator not evidently interfering with everyday life, there is conflicting evidence regarding the psychosocial impact of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator implantation such as anxiety, depression, perceived control and quality of life and how these concerns may relate to coping. Design. Cross‐sectional multicentre design. Methods. Individuals (n = 147, mean age 63 years, 121 men) who had lived with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator between 6–24 months completed the Jalowiec Coping Scale‐60, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Control Attitude Scale and Quality of Life Index‐Cardiac version. Results. Implantable cardioverter defibrillators recipients seldom used coping strategies, and the coping strategies used were perceived as fairly helpful. Optimism was found to be the most frequently used (1·8 SD 0·68) and most effective (2·1 SD 0·48) coping strategy, and recipients perceived moderate control in life. Anxiety (β = 3·5, p ≤ 0·001) and gender (β = 12·3, p = 0·046) accounted for 26% of the variance in the total use of coping strategies, suggesting that the more symptoms of anxiety and being women the greater use of coping strategies. Conclusions. Most recipients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator did not appraise daily concerns as stressors in need of coping and seem to have made a successful transition in getting on with their lives 6–24 months after implantation. Relevance to clinical practice. Nurses working with recipients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator should have a supportive communication so that positive outcomes such as decreased anxiety and increased perceived control and quality of life can be obtained. Through screening for anxiety at follow‐up in the outpatient clinic, these recipients perceiving mental strain in their daily life can be identified.

Suggested Citation

  • Inger Flemme & Ingela Johansson & Anna Strömberg, 2012. "Living with life‐saving technology – coping strategies in implantable cardioverter defibrillators recipients," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(3‐4), pages 311-321, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:21:y:2012:i:3-4:p:311-321
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2011.03847.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2011.03847.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2011.03847.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:21:y:2012:i:3-4:p:311-321. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2702 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.