The Impact of Awareness on the Comfort and Physiological Indicators in Patients Undergoing Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL)

Abstract

Introduction: Comfort and attention to the physiological indicators in patients are integral elements in providing comprehensive care to patients undergoing ESWL. This study was performed to specify the impact of patient awareness-raising before extracorporeal lithotripsy on the comfort and physiological indicators in patients. Materials and Methods: The study was a clinical trial involving 122 patients admitted to Baharlu Hospital. They were selected using the convenient sampling method and randomly divided into two groups, i.e. intervention and control (each comprising 61 patients). Patients' demographic characteristics scale and Kolcaba's General Comfort Questionnaire (GCQ) were delivered to both groups before the intervention. Correspondingly, the Blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiration were also measured by the researcher. Afterward, the necessary information was provided to the intervention group before the surgery by the researcher, along with a face-to-face lecture and a video broadcast. Meanwhile, the control group received the information routinely presented by the hospital department. It should be noted that patients' physiological indicators were measured and they were asked to fill in the GCQ scale before entering the extracorporeal lithotripsy room for both groups. The data were analyzed via SPSS version 20 and statistical procedures. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of demographic characteristics (P>0.05), however, the mean scores for the physiological and comfort indices in the two groups had a statistically significant difference after the intervention (P