Comparison of the effect of touch by nurse with touch by the patient himself on vital signs and level of consciousness of patients admitted to intensive care units

The effect of touching the patient's hand on their level of consciousness and vital signs

This study is a randomized clinical trial with 48 patients in two groups. The touch group by the patient's own hand (first group) and the touch group by the nurse (second group). After the available selection of hospitalized and purpose-based patients, in terms of admission criteria, they are randomly assigned to two groups in equal numbers using quadruple permutation blocks. Blindness for patients due to their lack of consciousness has been investigated and due to the lack of knowledge of the registrar of consciousness and vital signs of the subject in the groups and also a statistical analyst, in fact, this study was designed with two parallel groups, random and double-blind.

This randomized clinical trial is performed on patients with impaired level of consciousness (GCS below 8) admitted to intensive care units of Khorasan Razavi (in two groups). In the first group, touch therapy of the face and torso is performed by the patient's own hand, but with the help of a nurse, for six consecutive days and each time for 10 minutes. It takes time. Blinding for patients due to lack of consciousness is practically achieved and does not require special action.

Inclusion criteria: age between 15-60 years, absence of tactile disorders in different parts of the patient, GCS below 8 Exclusion criteria: dissatisfaction of companions

The intervention group includes patients who receive sensory stimulation with their own hands. The control group includes patients who receive sensory stimulation through the nurse.

Vital signs, level of consciousness

First, the research units are selected according to the estimated number of available patients admitted to intensive care units according to the inclusion criteria and in a purposful method. Then, using the quadruple block method, they are randomly assigned to two groups of two touch therapy groups (one group by the patient's own hand with help and the other by the nurse, 24 people in each group). In this way, for the group to be touched by the patient's own hand) with the help of the letter A and for the group to be touched by the nurse's hand, the letter B is considered. Possible modes in the four blocks of six modes include AABB, BBAA, ABAB, BABA, ABBA, BAAB, each mode is written on a card and the cards are assigned the number one to six. Then, using a dice, one of the six possible modes is selected and based on that, the selected patients are assigned to two relevant groups. This process continues until the sample size is completed.