Comfort in Patients Receiving Mechanical Ventilation: A Literature

Background: Comfort in patients receiving mechanical ventilation can be disturbed for many reasons. This condition may lead tonegativeimpactsduetounmetcomfortneedsinpatientswithmechanicalventilation. Kolcaba’scomforttheorydescribedthat patients’ comfortmaybeenhanced,if theneedsof comfortcanbemetinfourcontextsof comfort,includingphysical,psychospiritual, environmental, and sociocultural comfort. Therefore, there is a need to identify causative factors that may disturb comfort duringmechanicalventilationandinterventiontopromotecomfortwhilereceivingmechanicalventilation. Objective: Thisstudyaimedatreviewingtheliteratureconcerningcomfortinpatientsreceivingmechanicalventilation. Methods: A literature review was conducted by analyzing 42 scholarly papers from year 2002 to 2016. The data were searched through Scopus, ProQuest, Elsevier/Science Direct, CINAHL, and PubMed based on PICO questions with keywords; ‘comfort’, ‘discomfort’,‘comfortneed’ ‘patient’,‘mechanicalventilation’,and‘ventilator’. Relevantarticleswereappraisedfollowingtherecommendationof theJoannabriggsinstituteforevidence-basednursing. Results: Overall, 116 articles were retrieved and 42 articles met the inclusion criteria. The results presented comfort needs of mechanically ventilated patients in physical, psychospiritual, environmental, and sociocultural contexts, and interventions to promotecomfortduringmechanicalventilationweredividedtothefollowingthreecategories,pharmacologicalinterventions,nursingcareinterventions,andcomplementaryandalternativeinterventions. Conclusion and Recommendation: The knowledge from this literature review can be useful for nurses and other healthcare providerstodevelopqualitycomfortcareforpatientsdependentonmechanicalventilation. Keywords: Comfort,Discomfort,MechanicalVentilation,Ventilator