Experience of Communication with Hospitalized Pediatric and Adult Patients in Intensive Care Unit: Validation and...

Admission to the ICU is a stressful and life-changing event for both patients and families. Effective communication provided by ICU nurses to them minimizes their emotional burden and fosters positive reactions from families.

This study aimed to validate a scale developed to assess the nurses' experiences of communicating with patients in pediatric and adult ICUs.

A 24-item scale was created by the researchers to explore the experience of communicating with patients in pediatric and adult ICUs. The validation of the questionnaire included face and content validity, construct validity, internal consistency, repeatability, and discriminant validity.

In the present study 45 nurses (20 in pediatric ICUs and 25 in adult ICUs) were enrolled. The majority of participants were women (82.2%), married (51.1%), and had had university-level education (57.8%). The average age of the participants was 42 ± 8.6 years, while the average work experience in an ICU was 12.5 ± 8.9 years. The developed EC-ICU 24-item scale showed two categories: (a) communication difficulties the nurses face in ICU and (b) communication challenges in ICU. Each category comprises of four subscales. Regarding the eight sub-scales of the developed scale, participants tend to strongly agree with the statements (mean values close to 3 or above 3), apart from sub-scales 1,3, and 7 in which they tend to disagree (mean values close to 2). Internal consistency was found high (Cronbach's a > 0.7) in all sub-scales. All scores had great repeatability, which suggests a high degree of reliability of the participants' responses (ICCs>0.8).

The topic of communication is commonly inadequately represented in both daily ICU clinical practice and research.