Effectiveness of Sign Board on Experiences of Mechanically Ventilated Patients Admitted in Selected Hospitals

Abstract

The objective of the study was to assess and compare the experiences of mechanically ventilated patients with and without the use of sign board. 37 conscious mechanically ventilated patients were selected through purposive sampling technique. In view of nature of the problem and to accomplish the objectives of the study, structured mechanical ventilator experience scale was prepared to assess the experiences of patients (in terms of communication of needs/problems) during mechanical ventilation. Validity was ensured in the field of nursing and medical departments. Reliability of the tool was tested by split half method, which was found to be 0.72 (acceptable limit is (0.7–0.9). Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Results showed that maximum number of needs communicated with the use of sign board were in the physical domain. Chi square values applied to compare the experimental and comparison group with respect to levels of experiences in terms of communication of needs. The chi square value (χ2=33.4, p=0.01*) found to be highly significant at ≤0.05 level of significance. The study also depicted no significant association of levels of experience with selected variables in experimental and comparison group. The findings suggest that experiences of patients in experimental group were better than the comparison group with the use of sign board.

Keywords: sign board, mechanically ventilated patients.