Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) have always been considered by healthcare specialists for different reasons, including extensive prevalence, high cost, chronicity, and high risk of death. the recovery from CVDs is highly influenced by the behavior and lifestyle. As a result, it seems necessary to train and develop special abilities for patients and their companions, the development of efficient and effective training systems should be considered by healthcare specialists.
Methods: Hence, in this study, an existing training system for cardiovascular patients is reviewed, and using field observation and targeted interviews with hospital experts, all aspects of its training process, including involved components, inputs, outputs, processes and interactions are extracted. Then the process maps of the training system are drawn up through the BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) methodology. Next, its challenges and difficulties are identified with the aid of semi-structured interviews with experts, and due to the importance and different influence of the identified problems, these challenges are prioritized using the Multi Criteria Decision Making method (MCDM).
Results: The most important identified challenges included high nursing workload and shortage of time, lack of understanding of training concepts by patients, lack of attention to training, disruption of training process by the patients’ companions, and patient's weakness in understanding the standard language. In identifying the root causes, learner, educator, and educational tools are the most effective in the training process; therefore, the improvement scenarios were designed accordingly.
Conclusions: In the present study, a novel framework for cardiovascular patients' education has been designed and presented based on the analysis of the results of ranking the challenges and their root causes.