Ett sviktande hjärta
patientupplevelser av att leva med en kronisk hjärtsvikt
Heart failureLife world perspectivePatient experienceMiddle ageNursingHjärtsviktLivsvärldPatientupplevelseMedelålderOmvårdnad
As the occurrence of obesity increases amongst young people, so increases the risk of more people suffering from heart failure as early as during middle age. The aim is to describe the life experiences of middle aged persons living with chronic heart failure. The literature study is based on twelve published, qualitative, and scientifically proved articles derived from MedLine and Cinahl using queries representing the subject, as well as from manual searching in ScienceDirect and LIBRIS. These articles have been analyzed from a life world perspective. Four main themes and four sub themes were identified from the articles' results. The main themes are "The social life", "Quality of life", "Body failing", and "the Economical impact of chronic heart failure". These represent the main areas where the patients feel the greatest loss due to their condition. The discussion reveals the importance of informing the patients of the common prevalence of the feelings described in this study. Also, the nurse should function as a coach for self-care with continuous follow-ups. The result of this study will hopefully increase the understanding of the heart diseased patients' life situations.