device that continuously monitors the patient’s heart rate based on their on their body’s required cardiac output. An estimated amount of six hundred thousand pacemakers are implanted yearly. Patients who have had a pacemaker placed have a history of problems related to psychosocial compatibility and quality of life which have resulted in emotional disorders. These emotional disorders stem from a patients mental expectation of the device. This was chosen to be a qualitative study because quantitative studies will have limitations in measuring emotional issues and the unknown knowledge within the participants and their ability to pull them out.
In the methodology section, this study was completed in 2014 in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Iran (TUMS).
A phenomenological approach was chosen for this study because of its ability to review human experiences. The participants had a history of a pacemaker for at least 6 months and were followed by subspecialty heart clinics in TUMS. The total amount of participates was 27 patients. In this study, the experiences of these 27 patients with a history of using pacemakers were reviewed. The mean duration of pacemaker use was about 43 months. Semi-structure interviews were used for data collection. During the interviews, questions were designed using the literature review and the opinions of experts in this field. The length of each interview was between 30 to 60 minutes. Content-analysis, which is a method for identifying, analyzing and reporting themes within a text and applicable in the analysis of qualitative data, was used for data analysis. At the end of each interview, responded validity was used for data accuracy meaning that the statements were summarized and retold to the participants to confirm the accuracy of the researcher’s notes. Informed consents were obtained from each participant, and they were allowed to withdraw and leave the study at any
time.
The results were categorized into three sections labeled A, B, C. A involved problems and restrictions, B involved felling and encounter with pacemaker and C involved source of comfort. Figure 1 summarizes the main themes and subthemes of the results.