A Study to Assess Level of Anxiety among Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Patients in a Selected Hospital, Salem, Tamilnadu

Background: Anxiety is a vague, uneasy feeling, the source of which is often unspecific and unknown to the individual. It is the common finding in the ICU. This unhealthy state may lead to increased irritability, discomfort, hypertension, tachycardia, Cardiac Ischemia, harmful motor activity and psychological disquiet for the patient. The appropriate treatment of this condition may lead to decrease mortality.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to quantify the levels of anxiety experienced by Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients before transfer to the ward.

Research Approach and Design: Non experimental, descriptive research design with cross sectional survey approach was used for the present study.

Setting: The study was conducted in a selected Hospital, Intensive Care Unit, Salem, Tamilnadu.

Subjects: All adult ICU patients who remained in ICU for greater than 24 hours were eligible for the study.

Sample size and sampling technique: Purposive sampling which is a non probability sampling was used to select the samples for the present study. A total of 50 patients admitted to intensive care unit were the sample for study.

Instrument used: Level of anxiety was measured by using structured interview schedule developed by the author. The tool has two section ie., section A and section B. Section A consists of demographic variable and section B consists of five point Likert scale with 30 anxiety items with five domains. The five domains are anxiety items related to isolation, use of hospital aids, dependency, life threats and financial ruin.

Major findings and reports: Major findings revealed that majority (40%) of the patients were between 31 - 45 years of age and were males (76%), from upper middle socio economic class (66%) and most of the patients admitted in ICU less than one week (88%), majority had no previous exposure (78%) and from urban (74%). Thirty four percentages of them were graduates. Overall observation of anxiety shows that 42% of them had moderate level of anxiety, 32% had severe anxiety and 26% had panic level of anxiety. Severe level of anxiety was found highest for the factor related to isolation(48%), whereas, moderate and severe level of anxiety were found highest for use of hospital aids (38%), life threats (38%), dependency(36%) and financial ruin(38%). There was no significant association between level of anxiety and age, sex, previous exposure, family, education, employment, residence and diagnosis except occupation and income.

Conclusion: This small study provides a start to the prospective mapping of anxiety levels on time of transfer and shortly after transfer from an ICU to the wards. It also provides information to researchers who want to examine ICU transfer anxiety. By understanding the anxiety experienced by ICU patients, nurses are better able to provide psychological support and thus more holistic care to this group of patients.