A Study on the Demand for Equipent Development in Nursing

간호기기 개발수요 조사연구

The objectives of thes study were to identify the need for equipment development in nursing, and to determine the priorities for that development. The study was descriptive study done between March 2 and May 30, 1995, in which the subjects, including 421 patients, 223 family members, and 198 nurses from neurosurgery, orthopedic, rehabilitation medicine, internal medicine and intensive care units of nine general hospitals in Seoul, completed a questionnarie developed by the research team. The questionnaire consisted of 35 open and closed questions. Data was analyzed using frequencies and percentages. The results ware summarized as follows: 1) The average age of the nurses was 27.9 years, 48% of the patients were between 20 and 40 years of age, and 17% were over 60. The average lingth of experience for the nurse subjects was four years five months with 36.9%. having over five years experience. The most frequent diagnoses of patients were spinal disc(35.9%), internal medicine disease(26.0%), cerebral vascular accident(16.6%) and spinal cord injury(10%) 2) Many of the nurses(96.4%) reported deficiencies with existing equipment and 96.5% of the nurses, but only 79.8% of the patients, nurses' time. Further, 82.3% of the nurses and 75.8% of the patients felt that the development of new equipment would lead to a decrease in the cost of nursing care. 3) Nurses felt that the greatest areas of inconvenience were patient feeding(71.7%), hygiene(71.2%), caring for a patient confined to bed(70.7%), patient clothing(67.2%), mobility transfers(63.5%) and urinary elimination(52.0%). However, patients and family members listed the following as being the most inconvenient: urinary elimination(58.7%), Hygiene(50.5), feeding(48.4%), mobility transfers(47.1%) and bed care(45.2%). 4) Generally the nurses listed more inconveniences and patients and family members listed more demands for the development of equipment. These included utensils with large handles, and regulators for tube feedings; mattresses that provide for automatic position change and massage, which have patient controlled levers and a place for bed pan insertion; automatic lifts or transfer from bed to wheelchair; equipment to facilitate washing and oral hygiene as well as equipment that will allow patients with spinal cord injuries easy access to showers; a bed pan/urinal for women that is comfortable and effective from which urine can be measured and disposed of easily; disposable dressing sets and tracheostomy care sets and a convenient way of measuring changes in wound size; a safe delivery system for oxygen, a variety of mask sizes and better control of humidity, tracheal material than at present, as well as a communication system for patients with tracheostomies; clothing that will allow access to various parts of the body for treament or assessment without patients having to remove all of their clothing; and finally a system that will allow the patient to control lighting, telephones and pagers. Priority areas for equipment development reported by the nurses were, urinary elimination(58. 7%), hygiene(50.5%), feeding(48.4%), mobility transfers(47..1%), bowel elimination(40.8%). Those reported by the patients family members were feeding(71.7%), hygiene(70.0%), bedcare(70.7%), clothing(67.2%), mobility transfers(63.6%), urinary elimination(52.9%) and bowel elimination(50.5%) Altogether, nurses, patients and family members listed the following as priorities; clothing (178), bed care(144), urinary elimination(92), environment(81), hygiene(70). Further, a health professional forum listed urinary elimination, oxygen delivery, medication delivery, mobility transfers, bed care and hygiene in that order as priority areas. From this study it can be concluded that the first need is to develop equipment that will address the problems of urinary elimination. To do (l)This nurses who are interested in equipment development should organize an equipment development team to provide a forum for discussion and production of equipment for nursing.