The effectiveness of using visual communication boards on communication effectiveness in post-open-heart surgery patients with a ventilator tube

Abstract

A quasi-experimental study using a one-group pretest–posttest design aimed to investigate the effects of using visual communication boards on communication effectiveness in post-open-heart surgery intubated patients. The sample included 30 intubated patients after open heart surgery from Cardiac and Thoracic surgery Cardiothoracic Surgery Unit at Buddhachinaraj Hospital, Phitsanulok. The research instruments consisted of 1) a demographic data collection form, namely gender, age, disease, and surgical information, 2) a communication effectiveness assessment form, namely communication time and response to the needs of the patient, passed evaluating content validity from three experts with IOC = 0.66-1.00, 3) the communication feedback using visual communication boards among post-open-heart surgery patients with inserted ventilator tubes questionnaire, which was designed as a multiple-choice question format, passed evaluating content validity from three experts with IOC = 0.66-1.00, and 4) visual communication boards were made from flute boards with dimensions 50 centimeters wide and 60 centimeters long, passed evaluating content validity from three experts with IOC = 0.66-1.00.

The results revealed that the average time for communication before using the visual communication boards was 37.5 seconds, while the average time for communication after using the visual communication boards was 4.0 seconds. The communication time before and after using the visual communication boards differs significantly at a statistically significant level of .001. The accuracy of patient needs responsiveness before using the visual communication boards was 56.66%, whereas the accuracy of patient needs responsiveness after using the visual communication boards was 96.66%.

A suggestion for implementing the research findings is that healthcare providers can apply visual communication boards as an alternative technique for communication with intubated patients. Moreover, this technique can be employed to communicate among intubated patients in other areas.