Evaluation of chest physiotherapy applications in intensive care nurses

This study was done in order to determine the states of knowledge and applications of nurses working in intensive care units about chest physiotherapy (CPT), to contribute to their current knowledge and raise awareness through a training provided related to CPT. The study has the characteristics of experimental design. It was done in March-May, 2016 after ethics committee approval and written permit of head physician were received. All of the nurses working in Intensive Care Unit at Gaziantep University Şahinbey Research and Application Hospital comprised population of the study, and 62 nurses comprised the study sample. Before the training, a questionnaire which contained their introductory features and the parameters related to CPT was applied to the nurses. Later, training was provided to nurses one-to-one and in suitable environment through a video presentation, which was prepared by making a literature review and receiving expert opinion, lasted up to 15 minutes and in which methods of CPT were shown, and through a training guide, which included CPT's definition, objectives, evaluation parameters and CPT's methods. Three months after the training, CPT-related part of the questionnaire was applied again. The data were evaluated with Shapiro-Wilk test, Matched-pairs t-test and Mc Nemar test. 30,6% of nurses taking part in the study expressed that they received CPT-related training during nursing education; 6,5% of them expressed that they received it during in-service training; 59,7% of them expressed that they provided training about CPT to patients; 95,2% of them expressed that there were not any guides about CPT, which they used in their units; 80,6% of them expressed that they applied CPT in their intensive care units where they worked; 83,9% of them expressed that they evaluated efficiency of CPT. It was determined that the nurses expressed more correctly the aim of applying CPT apart from controlling and removing airway secretions, CPT evaluation parameters apart from coughing exercises, contraindications of postural drainage, the fact that if secretion is dark during aspiration, fluid intake should be increased and FiO2 should be increased during, before and after aspiration and aspiration should not last more than 10 seconds, controlled coughing, percussion and diaphragmatic aspirating techniques, the definitions of hypoxia and oxygen saturation, and arterial blood gas (p<0.05). In conclusion, it was detected that nurses did not receive adequate education related to CPT applications and the training provided on this subject contributed. In line with these results, it can be recommended that current CPT-related guide be prepared for nurses, that their knowledge be updated through videos and trainings in which applications are shown, that they use their knowledge in their daily applications in evidence-based way. Key Words: Pulmonary Rehabilitation, chest physiotherapy, respiratory physiotherapy, nursing applications.