Application of follow-up care by liaison nurses in patients transferred out of the intensive care unit

Abstract

Objective To explore the intervention effect of liaison nurses on the follow-up care of patients transferred out of the intensive care unit. Methods Totally 156 ICU patients from January to December 2016 were selected as the research object by convenient sampling, with 71 patients from January to June as the control group and 85 patients from July to December as the treatment group. Patients in the control group received conventional transfer, while a team of ICU liaison nurses was established to provide continuing nursing services to the patients transferred from ICU into general wards in terms of the treatment group so that potential risks could be found and intervened as early as possible. The average length of stays, rate of unexpected return to ICU within 48 hours, and incidence of nursing complications were compared between the two groups. The State Anxiety Inventory and Chinese Version of Critical Care Family Satisfaction Survey were used to compare the level of transfer anxiety and family satisfaction of the patients in the two groups. Results The patients in the treatment group showed a shorter average length of stays and a lower rate of unexpected return to ICU within 48 hours and incidence of nursing complications than the patients in the control group (P<0.05) . The patients in the treatment group had a lower score in transfer anxiety (P<0.05) . The score in any dimension of family satisfaction and the total score of the patients in the treatment group were higher than those of the patients in the control group (P<0.05) . Conclusions Liaison nurses have showed a good effect on the follow-up care of patients transferred out of ICU, which is significant to some extent. Key words: Intensive care units; Liaison nurse; Transferred patient; Follow-up care