Comparison of Face to Face vs. Group Training on Self-pulse Rate taking Ability of Patients

Habibollah Saadat (Cardiovascular Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran)
Roxana Sadeghi (Cardiovascular Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran)
Maryam Jannatipour (Cardiovascular Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran)
Alireza Abadi (Department of Health and Community Medicine, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran)
Zahra Saadat (Cardiovascular Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran)
Saeed Alipour Parsa (Cardiovascular Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran)

International Journal of Cardiovascular Practice
Vol. 4 No. 1 (2019)

Introduction: Determining the rate and regularity of peripheral arterial pulses has a major role in assessing the clinical status of patients with cardiovascular disorders. We compared two training methods on the ability of patients to take their radial pulse rate accurately.Methods: Three-hundred patients were randomly divided into two arms. One arm received individual face-to-face training and the other arm received group training via displaying an animation movie. Immediately after the training and then after 48 hours, the patients were tested by a nurse to find out whether they have learned the correct technique of taking radial pulse rate or not.Results: Immediately after the intervention, 84.9% in face-to-face arm and 81.8% in group training arm were able to correctly count their radial pulse rate (P = 0.536). After 48 hours, 71.7% in face-to-face and 60.8% in group training arm were able to correctly count their radial pulse rate (P = 0.051).Conclusions: Both methods were effective to improve the ability of the patients to count their radial pulse rate correctly though face-to-face method was marginally superior to group training.