Book excerpt: "The purpose of this study was to examine the congruence and disparity of postoperative Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) patients' perceptions of the1r learning needs and the care-giving nurses' perceptions of the patients' learning needs. In this nonexperimental, descriptive study, perceptions of learning needs were measured by the Cardiac Patient Learning Need Inventory (CPLNI). A comparison was made to determine congruence and disparity among patient and nurse perceptions. Thirty patients and 30 nurses completed the CPLNI. This instrument obtained perceptions about the nursing unit, anatomy and physiology, psychological factors, risk factors, medications, activity level, diet, and miscellaneous factors. A five category Likert scale was used to measure how each item ranged from 1 = not important to 5 = very important. Frequency distribution tables and mean scores were obtained for each of the 40 items for both subsamples. t̲-tests were performed comparing patient and nurse perceptions. Level of significance was set at p