The effect of environmental stressor perception on the comfort level of intensive care unit patients

Aim: The aim of this study is to determine the effect of environmental stressor perception on the comfort level of intensive care patients. Material and methods: The study was conducted with 111 patients who were hospitalized in Sinop Atatürk State Hospital Intensive Care Units (ICU) between January 1 and April 30, 2021. "Patient Identification Form", "Intensive Care Unit Environmental Stressors Scale (ICUESS)", "General Comfort Scale (GCS)", "Numeric Pain Scale" and "Numeric Nausea Scale" were used to collect data. In the evaluation of the data; "Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS)" 21 was used. In order to determine which method to use in the analysis of the data, it was decided whether the groups were normally distributed or not by checking the Shapiro-Wilk, Kolmogorov-Smirnov conformity, kurtosis and skewness values. The T-test was used when comparing the relationship of data between two independent groups, and the Anova test was used when comparing the relationship between more than two groups. Pearson correlation analysis and linear regression analysis were performed to evaluate the relationship between the environmental stress perception and comfort level of the patients. Findings: The mean age of the patients participating in the study was 66.11+12.61 years and it was determined that 64.9% were male, 75.7% were married, 51.4% were primary school graduates and 50.5% were retired. 83.8% of the patients had at least one chronic disease and the most common chronic disease was hypertension with a rate of 81.7%, 87.4% of them had been hospitalized before and 49.5% of them were in intensive care unit before. It was determined that 73% of the patients stayed in the ICU for two to five days, and 65.8% of the patients had good perceptions of their general health level. The mean ICUESS score of the patients participating in the study was found to be 100.81±19.31 and the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient was 0.92. The mean GCS total score of the patients was 135.24±18.04 and the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient was 0.90. A moderate negative correlation was found between the patients' ICUESS score and the total GCS score (r:-0.57; p<0.001). According to the regression analysis, it was determined that the total score of ICUESS explained 32% of the total score of GCS, chronic disease status, previous hospitalization status, perceived general health status, and length of stay explained 34% of the total score of GCS. Results: As a result of the research, it was determined that patients with chronic diseases and previous hospitalization experience had lower comfort scores, and the perceived general health status and length of stay in the intensive care unit decreased the comfort level. The increase in the level of environmental stressors perceived by the patients decreases the comfort level.