Table 1.

List of databases and search terms utilised

DATABASES (Between 1990 May 2008)	LIST OF SEARCH TERMS (ab., ti., kw., hw.)	SELECTION CRITERIA
CINAHL MEDLINE PsycINFO The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials APAIS Health Proquest Health Wiley Interscience PubMed	'Chronic heart failure' or 'congestive heart failure' or 'heart failure' AND 'experience' AND 'Qualitative', 'Interview', 'Phenomenology', 'Grounded Theory', 'Narrative', 'Ethnography' or 'Observation'	Inclusion Criteria: Literature describing the experiences of people diagnosed with CHF: 1) people with CHF, 2) carers of people with CHF, and/or 3) health care professionals involved in caring for patients with CHF
		Exclusion criteria: Editorials, commentaries, discussion papers and conference abstracts Non-English paper