Mapping the health management journey map of patients with Stanford type A aortic dissection

BACKGROUND: Stanford type A aortic dissection is a life-threatening cardiovascular emergency requiring urgent surgical intervention. Despite advances in treatment, post-operative recovery remains challenging with complex health management needs. Current care models often lack patient-centered insights into their evolving experiences across diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation phases. Therefore, exploring the disease management journey of patients from the perspective of patient experience is of great significance to improve the prognosis of patients. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to delineate patients' health management journey to identify critical care transitions and unmet support needs, ultimately informing targeted nursing interventions. METHODS: Based on the patient journey map framework and using a descriptive qualitative research method, 23 patients with Stanford type A aortic dissection were selected for semi-structured interviews from January 2023 to March 2024. Conventional inductive content analysis was used to analyze the interview data. The patient journey maps were drawn by using Word Processing System software. RESULTS: Three distinct phases of care were identified: diagnostic phase, in-hospital treatment phase, and long-term self-management phase. From the dimensions of tasks, emotions, and pain points, the study highlighted prominent health management issues and twenty-seven themes, including marked symptom distress during the entire disease journey, distinct psychological experiences characterize different phases of the disease journey, and evolving health service requirements throughout the disease trajectory. The patient journey maps were ultimately developed based on sub-themes. CONCLUSION: The disease journey of patients with Stanford type A aortic dissection is lengthy, and their health management issues are complex, dynamic, and multidimensional. Our findings directly inform the development of targeted nursing interventions, such as structured pre-operative guidance to address acute symptoms and fears, nurse-led ICU interventions to reduce psychological problems, and a dedicated transition coordinator role to bridge the critical gap from hospital to home. Implementing such a phase-specific, patient-centered approach is essential to improving long-term outcomes. Future research could focus on developing nursing intervention strategies for key events under a time-matched model, targeting the health problems and care needs at different stages, to assist in comprehensive health care management.