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A descriptive design was utilized to identify the relationship between perceived cardiac rehabilitation at the time of discharge and perceived self-care three months later. Perceived cardiac rehabilitation was indicated by perceived quality of the cardiac rehabilitation program, perceived understanding of self-care, and satisfaction with hospital care. Perceived self-care was indicated by self-reported self-care related exercise, stress management, and medication. Fifty-three patients from a community hospital voluntarily participated in the study by responding to four questionnaires. A low positive relationship was found between (a) perceived quality of the cardiac rehabilitation program and self-reported stress management, (b) perceived understanding of self-care and self-reported exercise and stress management, and (c) satisfaction with hospital care and self-reported exercise and medication administration. These findings of post-hospital care are useful in the evaluation of the effectiveness of one nurse-coordinated cardiac rehabilitation program.

With improved survival following cardiac transplantation, attention has focused upon the quality of that survival and some of the variables that may impact quality of life. The present study objectively measured subjective aspects of quality of life in order to discover its pre- and postoperative predictors. Results indicate that immunosuppression following heart transplantation creates a significant number of complications and symptoms for the recipient and is significantly related to elevated levels of psychological distress, particularly depression and anxiety, and decreased self-esteem. These findings emphasize the importance of careful symptom evaluation and targeting of distressed patients for psychological intervention in clinical settings and underscore the importance of continued medical research to improve immunosuppression therapy. Descriptive statistics reveal a rather mixed picture of postoperative quality of life which may result from the difficult clinical reality in which heart transplant patients often trade one set of preoperative cardiac symptoms for another set of postoperative symptoms related to immunosuppression therapy.

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