Therapeutic education tools for use in cardiology centres
I-Care1 2 is a national programme, established in 2004, which has developed therapeutic education units in cardiology centres in France. The programme aims to organise a training course in therapeutic education and develop standardised educational tools specifically for people with chronic heart failure.
Participating medical teams take a training course in therapeutic education. They also receive educational tools for people with heart failure created by I-Care, including an education assessment and advice on diet control, physical activity and medication.
What has it achieved?
Approximately 200 centres in France, Belgium and Luxembourg participated in I-Care and were helped to set up education units. Of these, 80% were still active in therapeutic education at the point of the evaluation (a very high rate, given that centres have to provide their own human and financial resources to participate).2
Participating centres use a mix of educational tools, including one-on-one and group teaching, delivered by a multidisciplinary team including specialist nurses, dietitians, cardiologists and physiotherapists.2
Links, references and key reading
- Juillière Y, Trochu J-N, Jourdain P. Importance de l’éducation thérapeutique dans la prise en charge multidisciplinaire de l’insuffisance cardiaque. Annales de Cardiologie et d’Angéiologie 2006;55:11-16.
- Juillière Y, Jourdain P, Roncalli J, et al. Therapeutic education unit for heart failure: Setting-up and difficulties. Initial evaluation of the I-CARE programme. Archives of Cardiovascular Disease 2009;102:19-27.