Comfort in Patients Receiving Mechanical Ventilation: A Literature Review

Background: Comfort in patients receiving mechanical ventilation can be disturbed for many reasons. This condition may lead to negative impacts due to unmet comfort needs in patients with mechanical ventilation. Kolcaba’s comfort theory described that patients’ comfort may be enhanced, if the needs of comfort can be met in four contexts of comfort, including physical, psychospiritual, environmental, and sociocultural comfort. Therefore, there is a need to identify causative factors that may disturb comfort during mechanical ventilation and intervention to promote comfort while receiving mechanical ventilation. Objective: This study aimed at reviewing the literature concerning comfort in patients receiving mechanical ventilation. Methods: A literature review was conducted by analyzing 42 scholarly papers from year 2002 to 2016. The data were searched through Scopus, ProQuest, Elsevier/Science Direct, CINAHL, and PubMed based on PICO questions with keywords; ‘comfort’, ‘discomfort’, ‘comfort need’ ‘patient’, ‘mechanical ventilation’, and ‘ventilator’. Relevant articles were appraised following the recommendation of the Joanna briggs institute for evidence-based nursing. Results: Overall, 116 articles were retrieved and 42 articles met the inclusion criteria. The results presented comfort needs of mechanically ventilated patients in physical, psychospiritual, environmental, and sociocultural contexts, and interventions to promote comfort during mechanical ventilation were divided to the following three categories, pharmacological interventions, nursing care interventions, and complementary and alternative interventions. Conclusion and Recommendation: The knowledge from this literature review can be useful for nurses and other healthcare providers to develop quality comfort care for patients dependent on mechanical ventilation.