Abstract:
The purpose of this pre-post quasi-experimental was to study effect of the nursing self-management support program on dyspnea in persons chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The samples comprised sixty persons with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease aged 40 years and over. They were selected by purposive sampling technique and equally divided into a control group and an experimental group. The groups were matched in terms of gender, age, and severity of dyspnea. The control group received conventional nursing care while the experimental group participated in the self-management support nursing program. The 8-week intervention program employed 5 As strategies: assess, advise, agree, assist, and arrange. The research instruments included the Gifts dyspnea visual analogue scale and the dyspnea management behavior scale. The instruments had acceptable validity and reliability coefficient of .97 and .89, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-test. The findings indicated as follows: 1. The mean score of dyspnea in the experimental group after participating in the nursing self-management support program was significantly lower than that before participating in the program (p-value < .05). 2. The mean score of dyspnea in the experimental group after participating in the nursing self-management support program was significantly lower than that of the control group (p-value < .05).