Introduction

Secondary prevention care after a Myocardial Infarction (MI) has not improved during the last 15 years at the same rate as acute MI care. One reason could be that research and health care focus more on treatment, symptoms and risk factors and not on the individuals’ perceptions of the recovery process after an MI. Most previous research focuses on recovery from the women’s and their partners’ point of view. Since cardiac rehabilitation nurses meet many women after MI, their experiences of the women’s recovery process may be an important complement perspective.

Purpose

The aim was to explore cardiac rehabilitation nurses’ experiences of factors influencing female patients’ recovery after their first MI.

Method

The study was conducted using qualitative content analysis. Twenty cardiac rehabilitation nurses were interviewed and the study was carried out at 10 hospitals in Sweden.

Conclusions

Cardiac rehabilitation nurses experienced that women’s recovery after an MI was influenced by factors that were both related to their own individual as well as by their surroundings factors. The underlying meaning of women´s recovery is characterized as the transition process to the recovery to health.