Experiences of and Coping With Severe Aortic Stenosis Among Patients Waiting for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation

Abstract

Patients with AS and awaiting TAVI must cope with increasing symptoms and limitations in their social lives but still wish to be seen as the people they always have been. These patients may need extra support from healthcare personnel to process their experiences, which could help them to attach personal meaning to clinical information about the condition and its treatment that they could include in their decision about whether to undergo TAVI. Listening to patients' stories could help nurses and physicians to ensure that disease and treatment are meaningfully understood by the patient.