Correlations among nurses' ratings of patients' coping effectiveness and recovery from heart attack

This study examines the correlations among nurses' ratings of myocardial infarction patients' coping effectiveness and selected clinical outcomes. Ratings were made on 59 patients in hospital and home settings through a 6-months recovery period. The theoretical framework for the study was based on Lazarus' cognitive phenomenological paradigm of psychological stress and Moos' adaptive task of coping. Data were collected by trained nurse interviewers and examined using descriptive and correlational analysis. The findings suggest that trained nurses are able to make clinical assessments of patients' coping effectiveness early in the course of recovery that are predictive of later coping effectiveness, self-reported well-being as measured by the General Well-Being Schedule and the Social Adjustment Scale by Self-Report, compliance and depression. Correlations with physicians' ratings of recovery were also found to be significant. Implications for practice are discussed and suggestions for future research offered.