The Effectiveness of Communication Board on Ease of Communication and Anxiety among Patients on Mechanical Ventilator

Abstract

Background: Patients with physical and sensory disabilities, such as deafness, blindness, and patient with endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation have been shown to face considerable barriers when communicating with health-care professionals.

Materials and Methods: The present study entitled effectiveness of communication board on communication pattern and level of anxiety. The research design adopted was pre-experimental non-equivalent, post-test only with control group design. A total number of 60 samples (30 samples for experimental group and 30 samples for control group) were selected using non-probability purposive sampling technique. The communication board was implemented as a strategy to communicate the needs of patients in the experimental group. The samples in control group were on routine treatment. About 2060 min after extubation, the post-test assessment of level of communication and anxiety was done using modified ease of communication scale and hospital anxiety and depression scale, respectively, in both experimental and control group. The data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: In post-test, patients on mechanical ventilator had 6.93 ± 1.43 mean level of anxiety in the experimental group and 14.7 ± 2.28 mean level of anxiety in the control group, so the mean difference is 7.77 and the calculated independent t-test value is 1.93 and it is statistically significant at P < 0.05 level.

Conclusion: Communication board can significantly improve the ease of communication pattern and level of anxiety among patients.