"The whole problem is these patients wake up from surgery, they have all these compelling questions and concerns but have no way to transfer this information to the people caring for them," Patak says. "So they are 100 percent dependent on their care provider anticipating their needs."
In fact, Patak led a research project that looked at the levels of frustration intubated patients experience in trying to communicate their needs. The results, "Patients' Reports of Health Care Practitioner Interventions That Are Related to Communication During Mechanical Ventilation," was just published in the September/October issue of Heart & Lung.
The research, which focused on 29 critically ill patients, found that 62 percent reported a high level of frustration in communicating their needs to their care givers; 24 percent said they found the experience frustrating or somewhat frustrating; and only 14 percent reported no frustration in communicating their needs during mechanical ventilation.
"Mechanically ventilated patients are unable to vocalize feelings, verify perceptions and cope with fears, anxiety, and stress through verbal communication," the report said.
As a result, the caregiver is forced to interpret the patients' non-verbal communication such as mouthing, gesticulating, nodding and writing--which can be difficult for the critically ill patient. "Such nonverbal methods require excess energy and are fatiguing and emotionally draining for these patients," the report said.
Patak developed the E-Z Board in 1999 and, since then, has sold some 20,000 to over 200 hospitals nationwide through his company, Vidatak, LLC (http://www.vidatak.com/). It's become such
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Contact: Enrique Rivero
erivero@support.ucla.edu
310-794-2273
University of California - Los Angeles
19-Oct-2004