Kari Kirian's doctoral dissertation, entitled “Establishing a Standard for Peri-operative ICD Patient Education: A Demonstration Project”, explores whether an enhanced psychosocial education curriculum results in improved adjustment for newly implanted ICD patients above and beyond that provided by the current “standard of care”. The primary endpoints are patient acceptance as assessed by the Florida Patient Acceptance Scale (FPAS) and quality of life (QOL) as assessed by the Medical Outcomes Study-Short Form-12 Health Survey (SF-12). Secondary endpoints are depression and anxiety as assessed by the Hospital Depression and Anxiety Scale (HADS).

The study is being conducted with approximately 52 patients living in Greenville, NC and surrounding areas. Patients are approached regarding participation in the study during post-operative clinical care, which occurs 7-15 days post-implant. Following informed consent, patients complete a questionnaire packet containing the FPAS, SF-12, HADS, Florida Shock Anxiety Scale (FSAS), the ICD and Avoidance Survey, a general demographic questionnaire, and a quiz that serves as a knowledge manipulation check. Patients are randomly assigned to one of two education intervention groups (n = 26): 1) enhanced psychosocial curricula administered by a trained doctoral student, a video, and a question and answer session with nursing staff with input from the electrophysiologist if necessary or 2) “standard of care” (video and question and answer session only). The domains of the enhanced curricula include: ICD knowledge and post-discharge care, Understanding shock, Stress Management, Family and relationships, Device recall, and Survivorship. After 6 weeks, patients are re-assessed on the aforementioned measures. It is hypothesized that an enhanced psychosocial education curriculum will produce significant benefits over the standard of care for newly implanted ICD patients. It is hoped that findings from this research will elicit changes in the current standard of care for the education of this patient population.