Developing Potential Solutions

We will be brainstorming ideas for our topic:

How might we improve self-management of Heart Failure patients at home post-discharge?

This past week we were able to interview patients with CHF and learned what was their biggest difficulties in the management of their care. During class we discussed the two extremes of a CHF persona.

PERSONA #1

Mr. R. He is a 50 year old with CHF, living with his girlfriend and 2 children. His motivations to self-manage his care include living a healthy life for his children, improving/maintaining his health status, and keeping strong support from his girlfriend and siblings. His goals are to have better self management, to stay out of the hospital, and to improve is activities of daily living. Some of his pain points of his self-management include taking so many medications, watching fluid intake, watching salt intake, and eating a different (low sodium) meal from his family. Certain behaviors that Mr. R has are feeling overwhelmed but still willing to learn. He feels social isolation, feeling abandoned, having physical restrictions, limited food, and fatigue from the condition.

PERSONA #2

Mr. N is a 77 yr old male, also living with CHF. Mr. N, however has 3 children who live in another state and whose spouse has passed away. Mr. N is quite different from the other persona in that his motivation is just to get by day to day. As a patient in the hospital, his only goal is to simply go home. His biggest pain points include completing the daily tasks of checking weight and BP, watching fluid and sodium intake, and keeping active. Some of his behaviors include losing a sense of control. He feels like he cannot control his symptoms, he is limited and helpless, and that his condition is unpredictable.

After discussing our personas with the class, we received a variety of feedback and possible solution ideas.

Some of the solution ideas include:

-A daily checklist with reminders of CHF care

-A phone app with medication alerts

-A scale that transmits daily weights to providers

-Discharge CHF package with free scales

-Healthy food delivery- low sodium meals

-Education support for family and children

-Facetime and telehealth with healthcare providers

-Connecting CHF patients with support groups

Our group will continue to narrow down our ideas to the most feasible solution for our CHF population. Gizelle, Janna, and I work different shifts in the hospital, making it a challenge to work together in person. However, we make it possible to share our ideas and thoughts together using Google Drive/Google Docs, via email, and text messaging.