Heart Failure Education
Overview
This section of the toolkit includes professional resources for health care providers and heart failure education for patients and caregivers. The level of heart failure knowledge is varied in the field. As integrating heart failure care teams come together, individual team members may have different levels of heart failure knowledge. This section of the toolkit aims to provide evidence-based resources to bridge that knowledge gap. Note that while the education resources have been categorized for ‘Provider’ or ‘Patient’, each may find the others’ resources useful. What follows is an annotated list of heart failure resources.
Heart Failure Education for Patients and Caregivers
A booklet for people living with heart failure, containing helpful fact sheets and information on managing heart failure, medications, activity and other tips.
For a concise overview of heart failure, visit the Heart and Stroke’s Heart Failure webpage.
This patient guide is based on information from Health Quality Ontario’s quality standard Heart Failure: Care in the Community for Adults. The quality standard focuses on care provided to people with heart failure outside of the hospital. The patient guide is not meant to be a complete guide to heart failure but a tool to empower patients to talk with their health care providers about the topics that matter to them as they live with heart failure.
Information for Patients and Families
(BC Heart Failure Network)
For a comprehensive collection of heart failure related information, click on the “For Patients and Families” tab of the navigation bar on the BC Heart Failure Network website. Resources are available in several languages.
Making Decisions about Your Care
(Ontario Palliative Care Network)
A helpful 2-page summary to help patients and their caregivers better understand advance care planning, goals of care, and informed consent.
Heart Failure Patient Guide
(University of Ottawa Heart Institute)
A helpful guide for patients with heart failure including the basics of heart failure and living with heart failure. A video series covering some key topics is included.
Heart Failure Patient Education Site
(Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research)
A thorough resource for patients living with heart failure, with helpful tools for patients including a “Preparing for your Heart Function Clinic Appointment” checklist and daily weight record.
This website includes practical information for patients with heart failure, families and caregivers in multiple languages.
The HeartLife Foundation is Canada’s first – and only – national patient-led heart failure organization. The primary aims include raising public awareness of heart failure, engaging patients, families, and caregivers to provide education and support, facilitate access to the latest research, innovations, and treatments, and advocate better care for all.
The Ontario Caregiver Organization
Caring for someone with heart failure can be overwhelming at times, but there is support out there. The Ontario Caregiver Organization is an organization dedicated to raising awareness around the caregiving role, and supporting caregivers by linking them with the helpful services and knowledge they need.
Heart Failure Professional Resources for Health Care Providers
This PDF document, which can be printed into a pocket-sized booklet, contains a wealth of information on the basics of heart failure including ejection fraction, NYHA class, symptoms and severity, physical exam findings, medications and other topics. A helpful review of the basics of heart failure care for novice and seasoned heart failure care providers.
Is It Heart Failure and What Should I Do?
(Canadian Cardiovascular Society)
This pocket guide produced by the CCS, is a quick-reference tool that features diagnostic and management recommendations based on the CCS Heart Failure Comprehensive Guidelines (2017).
Professional Resources for Heart Failure
(University of Ottawa Heart Institute)
The University of Ottawa Heart Institute website provides a comprehensive list of heart failure education resources for health care providers, including clinical practice guidelines, CME and professional development, and materials and resources to use for patient education.
Heart Failure Education Videos
These two videos were created by CorHealth Ontario. Content is geared towards health care providers and topics include self-care management and medications for heart failure.
Video 1: Self-Care of Heart Failure
Objectives:
- Provide an overview of self-care in heart failure with reference to the National guidelines related to self-care activities
- Provide an overview of factors that impact patient engagement in self-care
- Discuss tips for supporting patient education and self-care engagement
Palliative Care Toolkit
(Ontario Palliative Care Network)
Heart failure is a chronic, progressive disease. Throughout the patient’s illness trajectory, discussions around advance care planning and end-of-life are critical to support best practices. This toolkit contains screening tools and conversation and consent tools that providers may find helpful.
Other resources to support heart failure care
Click on the following hyperlinks for additional information related to the management of heart failure, specifically around ICD deactivation and “Minimally Invasive Structural Heart” (MISH) procedures.