Difficulty communicating with a patient who is mechanically ventilated is a commonly encountered problem and is a frequent cause of frustration, for both patients and clinicians, in critical care. The inability to communicate effectively is a positive predictive factor for psychological distress. Patients themselves report impaired communication as the most stressful experience of critical care as an intervention. Equally it is likely to result in symptom misinterpretation, delayed treatment, and other serious consequences. Our research reflected other work from the last 20 years in demonstrating that in ICU the patients with the highest rates of stress, fear and frustration were those unable to communicate due to artificial airways. Both our research and previously reported studies repeatedly demonstrate that clinical staff over-estimate their ability to understand these patients. These issues combined are highly likely to relate to the fact that a least 20% of ICU survivors suffer with post traumatic distress syndrome, 30 % are left suffering with anxiety and 40% have clinical depression.
We then demonstrated that with myICUvoice, patients’ physical and emotional needs were better understood. Patients also felt less stressed or frightened, they were more satisfied with communication than similar patients with methods of communication currently used as standard in ICU. We have also used the data collected by myICUvoice to demonstrate the relationship between the kinds of symptoms patients report and their clinical conditions and physiological well being. This means we can now be more proactive to prevent these negatively impacting symptoms occur in the first case.
Understanding the importance of addressing the repeatedly demonstrated trend for nurses to over-estimate their ability to understand the needs and symptoms of patients, we conducted an ethnographic study to evaluate how we could improve the design of the software to suit both patients and nurses. The anthropologist involved in this work has now become an integral member of the team to ensure that going forwards our software is designed explicitly to meet the needs of both patients and clinicians.
More information on this presented research can be found in the menu above.
We then demonstrated that with myICUvoice, patients’ physical and emotional needs were better understood. Patients also felt less stressed or frightened, they were more satisfied with communication than similar patients with methods of communication currently used as standard in ICU. We have also used the data collected by myICUvoice to demonstrate the relationship between the kinds of symptoms patients report and their clinical conditions and physiological well being. This means we can now be more proactive to prevent these negatively impacting symptoms occur in the first case.
Understanding the importance of addressing the repeatedly demonstrated trend for nurses to over-estimate their ability to understand the needs and symptoms of patients, we conducted an ethnographic study to evaluate how we could improve the design of the software to suit both patients and nurses. The anthropologist involved in this work has now become an integral member of the team to ensure that going forwards our software is designed explicitly to meet the needs of both patients and clinicians.
More information on this presented research can be found in the menu above.