Effectiveness of Self Instructional Module on Perception of Needs among Family Members of ICU Patients

Background: Critical illness of a member of family who admitted in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) will lead other members to a state of tension, fear and anxiety. This will also leads to insufficient fulfillment of their needs. It may include mainly as follows physical, cognitive, emotional, spiritual, social and financial needs. Therefore, the investigator felt the need to evaluate the effectiveness of self instructional module on perception of needs among the family members of patients admitted in Intensive Care Units of selected hospital at Mangalore.

Objectives :The present study aims to assess the perception of needs both before and after administration of self instructional module and also to find the association between mean pre-test scores regarding perception of needs among the family members of patients admitted in Intensive care unit and with their selected demographic variables.

Method: A pre experimental, study was conducted among 50 family members of patient admitted in intensive care unit of selected hospital at Mangalore using a perceived needs inventory questionnaire followed by administration of self instructional module on needs among the family members of patients admitted in intensive care units. After a lapse of 7 days, post-test was conducted using the same perceived needs inventory questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: Assessment of the pre-test scores of perception of needs revealed that, that majority of the respondents, 30 (60%) had averagely perceived their needs, followed by 3 (6%) had good perception of needs, while none of them had excellent perception of needs. Whereas, after the administration of self instructional module the perception of needs level had improved, i.e., 30 (60.5%) respondents had good perception needs, followed by 20 (40%) respondents who had excellently perceived their needs. The mean percentage of the pre-test perception of needs score was 46.93% with total mean and standard deviation of 14.08 and 3.116 respectively. However, after the administration of self instructional module, the mean percentage had increased to 79.27%, with total mean and standard deviation of 23.78 and 2.013 respectively. The study findings also revealed there was a significant association between perception of needs score with the selected demographic variable, education. The obtained 't' value [25.57, P<0.05] was higher than the table value indicating the effectiveness of self instructional module.

Interpretation and conclusion: The study findings revealed that the family members are not meeting or perceiving their needs adequately. The self instructional module was found to be effective in making awareness on needs among the family members of patients admitted in ICU. The study findings implied that self instructional module had a vital role in perceiving and meeting the needs among the family members of patients admitted in ICU.