The effect of liaison nurse on patient anxiety and vital signs during cardiac care unit admission: a randomized clinical trial

Abstract

Admission to cardiac care unit (CCU) isa stressful event for patients. Nurseaccompaniment during CCU admissionmay help the patient in adapting to the CCU conditions.The present study was conducted to investigate theeffect of liaison nurse on patient’s anxiety and vital signsduring CCU admission. In this clinical trial, 70 coronaryheart patients were selected from the emergency roomthrough a purposive sampling and randomly assignedinto control and intervention groups. Samples’ anxietywas measured by Spielberger anxiety inventory and theirvital signs were recorded. The intervention group receivednecessary information and then the nurse accompaniedthem during the CCU admission. After that, Spielbergeranxiety inventory was completed and vital signs were recordedagain. Control patients only received the routinecare, through which they completed Spielberger anxietyinventory. Moreover, their vital signs were recorded beforeand after the CCU admission. Post-intervention meananxiety score of the intervention group was significantlylower than that of the control group (51.8±7.89 and57.23±6.36, p=0.002). Also, the mean heart rate in theintervention group was significantly lower than that ofthe control group (78.2±8.24 and 84.94±13.8, p=0.016).But, mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures and respiratoryrate showed no significant differences followingintervention between the groups. Results showed that thepresence of liaison nurse positively influences anxiety andsome vital signs of CCU patients and put patients in amore stable condition