FATIGUE IN THE LONG-TERM VENTILATOR PATIENT: INCIDENCE AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS (WEANING).
Contributors: Case Western Reserve University.
Published: 1996
Number of pages: 166
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to describe fatigue and its correlates from the perspective of the long-term ventilator patient who was weaning. The study also examined the extent to which patients and nurses differ in their perception of patient fatigue and its effect on weaning.

The 20 subjects were patients in an intensive care unit who were mechanically ventilated for at least seven consecutive days. Registered nurses involved in the subjects' care answered two questions about perceived patient fatigue and its effect on weaning.

Fatigue was present in 100% of the subjects and overall, they described themselves as moderately to severely fatigued. There was no statistically significant relationship between patient perception of fatigue and its effect on weaning. There were four correlates of patient perception of fatigue: (1) nutritional status: the mean serum albumin indicated that all the patients were performing the work of weaning in a compromised state but there was no statistically significant relationship demonstrated between nutritional status and perceived fatigue; (2) respiratory compromise: the rapid shallow breathing index and its relationship to fatigue was not calculated due to limitations in the ability to obtain current, spontaneous respiratory parameters at the time of the interview; (3) sleep-rest patterns: subjects had difficulties with sleep disturbances and rated their sleep quality low to moderately effective but there were no statistically significant relationships between fatigue and the three dimensions of sleep-rest; and (4) depression: subjects were moderately depressed and fatigue and depression correlated strongly (r = 0.61, p = 0.004). As a group, the nurse and patient mean scores of patient fatigue were closely approximated, with nurses rating their patients as slightly more fatigued than the patients themselves. The correlation was statistically nonsignificant. There also was no relationship between patient and nurse perception of the effect of fatigue on weaning. An examination of the data, however, disclosed large differences between many of the individual patient-nurse dyads.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-11, Section: B, page: 6851.

Thesis (PH.D.)--CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY, 1996.

School code: 0042.