Exploratory Qualitative Study

Introduction to the Research Article
According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death, representing 31% of all deaths globally (Cardiovascular diseases , 2015). Heart failure not only affects those living with the disease, but family members that in turn, become important caregivers. Caregivers often put their own health and needs aside to care for their family member. The article “Family Caregivers’ Experiences of Caring for Patients with Heart Failure: A Descriptive, Exploratory Qualitative Study” by Shahram Etemadifar, Masoud Bahrami, Mohsen Shahriari, Alireza Khosravi Farsani is a study of the experiences from a caregivers point of view. The level of evidence of this research article is
When a caregiver has more concise understanding of diagnosis and prognosis, better knowledge of medication and treatment regimen, it not only improves the patients well-being but as well as the caregiver. Behaviors, beliefs, and values of families differ among ethnic/cultural groups which makes the experiences and roles in the family caring situation different (Etemadifar, Bahrami, Farsani, & Shahriari, 2015). It’s important to recognize and show sensitivity towards the different cultures and beliefs when interacting with family caregivers and understanding their
479). The study is qualitative because it represents the experiences of family caregivers from their point of view. The research team and members experienced in conducting qualitative studies, was interested to investigate the experiences of Iranian family caregivers of patients with heart failure. A descriptive and qualitative approach was applied to gain authentic insight into the experiences of participants (Etemadifar, Bahrami, Farsani, & Shahriari, 2015). Houser (2015) states that descriptive research is useful when determining the characteristics of specific populations also when little is known about the existing state of a phenomenon