ABSTRACT
Registered nurses on a medical unit questioned whether current practice adequately met the emotional needs of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease hospitalized for acute dyspnea. The unit's education committee surveyed nursing staff regarding priority nursing activities during dyspneic episodes. After discussion with staff development educators, several registered nurses met with the center's nurse researcher, formed a research team, and designed a descriptive study. Findings of the study gave evidence for clinical practice change and revision of care guidelines.
Subject(s)
Dyspnea/nursing , Education, Nursing, Continuing/organization & administration , Evidence-Based Medicine , Nursing Evaluation Research , Nursing Staff, Hospital/education , Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive/complications , Acute Disease , Attitude of Health Personnel , Attitude to Health , Benchmarking , Clinical Competence , Diffusion of Innovation , Dyspnea/etiology , Dyspnea/psychology , Evidence-Based Medicine/education , Evidence-Based Medicine/organization & administration , Health Services Needs and Demand , Holistic Health , Humans , New England , Nurse's Role/psychology , Nurse-Patient Relations , Nursing Assessment , Nursing Evaluation Research/education , Nursing Evaluation Research/organization & administration , Nursing Staff, Hospital/psychology , Patient-Centered Care , Practice Guidelines as Topic , Professional Staff Committees/organization & administration , Research Design , Severity of Illness Index , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Like pain, dyspnea, or difficulty in breathing, is a strong subjective experience of physiologial distress. Using a model developed by DeVito, this study focused on the emotional aspects of the acute experience of dyspnea in patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on a medical unit and explored nursing activities that eased the intensity of the symptoms. The study was descriptive in design and used a semistructured interview format with four open-ended questions and a numerical self-assessment of dyspnea using the Modified 0-10 Borg Scale (MBS). The sample included 41 hospitalized patients with COPD between the ages of 43 and 89 years who had experienced episodes of acute dyspnea both prior to and during their current inpatient stays. This article provides descriptions of the experience of dyspnea, identifies themes from the participants' responses, notes the patients'perceptions of the efficacy of nursing actions, and extends the use of the MBS to an inpatient population.
