HF symptom monitoring and symptom management are necessary skills for selfcare in patients with HF. The numerous symptoms experienced by HF patients contribute to the complexity of HF patient self-care. The purpose of this study was to identify the patterns of symptoms experienced by patients hospitalized with HF and the relationship of those symptom patterns to HF patient self-care during hospitalization and 30 days post hospital discharge. This study is based in a conceptual framework

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... d by the researcher which proposes that relationships exist between symptom patterns and the HF patient's self-care. This was a multi-site descriptive cohort study of patients hospitalized with HF. A convenience sample of 59 patients was recruited from the inpatient areas of four community hospitals in Colorado. Patients were asked to rate their symptoms and their self-care behaviors. Participants were also contacted by telephone 30 days post hospital discharge to collect follow-up data on HF symptoms and HF patient self-care. The results of this study found that the most frequently occurring symptoms during hospitalization were tiredness, shortness of breath, and swelling. Tiredness was the most severe symptom reported at time of hospitalization. The mean number of symptoms reported during hospitalization was 6.05 (1.78) compared to 5.07 (2.62) at the time of the 30-day post discharge follow-up call. The results also showed that patients reporting higher numbers of symptoms correlated significantly with lower self-care iv confidence and self-care maintenance scores. In addition, the severity of symptoms was significantly, inversely correlated with self-care maintenance and self-care confidence. The conclusions from this study are that self-care maintenance and self-care confidence are important to the symptom experience. A standardized symptom assessment for HF symptoms could improve symptom management in the hospital setting, and patient education on HF self-care should include more of the symptoms of HF. The HFSSM Model could provide a useful framework to begin the development of these new strategies. The form and content of this abstract are approved. I recommend its publication.