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Patients' Perception of Stressful Events in the Intensive Care Unit After Cardiac Surgery.

BACKGROUND: Subjecting patients to stress has potentially detrimental effects on their physical and psychological recovery.

OBJECTIVE: To identify stress-generating experiences that occur in an intensive care unit for patients after cardiac surgery.

METHODS: A sample of 16 patients in a 14-bed cardiovascular intensive care unit at a university hospital in upstate New York completed a questionnaire (based on an established survey) asking them to rate 23 experiences on a Likert scale of 0 to 4. All patients were adults and had undergone coronary artery bypass graft surgery. After surgery, they were extubated and completed the questionnaire within 12 to 24 hours.

RESULTS: Patients reported pain to be the most stressful experience, followed by presence of an endotracheal tube and sleeplessness.

CONCLUSIONS: With pain, endotracheal intubation, and sleeplessness identified as highly distressing to patients, further research can be done to elicit interventions that could alleviate some of the stress involved with a postoperative stay in an intensive care unit.

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