The effect of Supportive Nursing Care on the Degree of Perceived Powerlessness in Intensive Care Unit Patients

Lee, Jeong Hee; Park, In Hyae

Abstract

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients are experiencing powerlessness due to the knowledge deficit to their illness, threatening environments, varied diagnostic procedures, hospital experiences, and isolation with their family members. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of supportive nursing care on powerlessness in ICU patients. The study design was a pre- and post-test quasi-experimental design. 37 patients with the diagnosis of ischemic heart disease in ICU were randomly assigned to experimental and control group. The experimental group was received supportive nursing care on the first, second, and third admission day. The degree of perceived powerlessness of patients was assessed by powerlessness scale. The results were as follows: 1. The first hypothesis, "The experimental group would has a more change in the scores of perceived powerlessness than that of control group" was supported (t=-2.58, p= 0.014). 2. The second hypothesis, "The higher the degree of perceived powerlessness scores, the lower the degree of decreased powerlessness scores in the experimental group" was supported (r=-0.597, p= 0.007). 3. The decreased powerlessness dimensions with supportive nursing care were physiological loss of control (t=5.79, p= 0.000) and knowledge deficit (t=3.70, p= 0.002). 4. In general and illness-related characteristics, the degree of perceived powerlessness showed significant difference in education level (F=11.02, p= 0.0001). These results suggest that supportive nursing care may be effective in decreasing the degree of perceived powerlessness of ICU patients.