The Effectiveness of the Role of Liaison Nurses on the Anxiety of the Family of Patients Discharged from Intensive Care Units: A Clinical Trial Study

Family members of patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit have significant anxiety. Strengthening the hospital's relationship with the home after discharge can be helpful in providing the necessary information and skills in the presence of the liaison nurse to provide and maintain care. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the role of the liaison nurse on the family anxiety level of patients discharged from the intensive care unit.

 This clinical trial study was performed on 53 patients discharged from intensive care units in two groups of intervention and control. Patients in the intervention group were followed up for two weeks by a trained nurse as a liaison nurse and the control group did not receive any follow up care. The level of anxiety of the patients' family was completed and assessed by the 14-item Hospital Anxiety Questionnaire at discharge, at the end of the first week and the second week after discharge by the primary caregiver.

The mean score of anxiety in the family intervention group was 10.34 ± 4.01 immediately after discharge and in two weeks after discharge it was 9.10 ± 2.85. In the control group, the mean score of family anxiety immediately after discharge was 9.33± 3.59 and two weeks after discharge was 9.87 ± 4.1. There was no statistically significant differences between the anxiety levels of the control and intervention group immediately after discharge, and one week later and two weeks later (P> 0.05).

Although the results of the present study did not show a significant difference in the anxiety score of family members between the two groups with and without a liaison nurse, the anxiety scores in the liaison nurse group had decreased compared to before discharge. Also, it is worth mentioning that training the primary caregivers of patients discharged from intensive care units can reduce the level of family anxiety after discharge.