The Effect Of Oral Swab Wipes To Prevent Thirst And Xerostomia Among Patients Admitted In Critical Care Wards

Background of the study: Thirst and xerostomia are common symptoms, recognized among patients when hospitalized in critical care units, if ignored, can lead to serious oral consequences and other severe complications such as an increase in the intensity of pain and dyspnea in patients. Several factors are responsible for thirst and xerostomia in critical care ward patient which include, age, sex, whether, comorbidity, hospital anxiety, pre- and post-operative fasting before and after surgery of the patients, severe progressive disease condition and prolonged use of medication etc. Aim: This study aimed to effect of oral swab wipes to prevent thirst and xerostomia among patients admitted in critical care wards. Material and method: A quantitative quasi experimental research approach and two group pretest and posttest experimental design was used in this study. Data was collected by non-probability purposive sampling technique and two standardized scale is used for assessment of thirst and xerostomia that is thirst discomfort scale and Visual Analogue Scale in this study. Results of the study: This study result shows The assessment of Pre data in the Thirst Discomfort scale in the Control and the Experiment Groups: majority of the values in both groups fall under the “very uncomfortable”and Post data in the Thirst Discomfort scale in the Control and the Experiment Groups: there is no difference in the values of the Pre and Post data in the Control group but post data assessment, all the variables are statistically highly significant at 5% level of significance as the P-value < 0.0001., means there was a significant positive difference in the Post values of the Experiment group. The assessment of Pre data for Xerostomia in the Control and the Experiment Groups: There are 7 variables of the total 15 variables, which do not have a significant difference when tested at 5% level of significance and the assessment of Post data for Xerostomia in the Control and the Experiment Groups, the variables with P-value < 0.05 are significantly different in their Pre values when compared between Control and Experiment groups. only 4 variables are not significant at 5% level of significance. Therefore, the outcome of group wise distribution, there is a positive statistically significant difference in the Experiment Group compared to the Control Group in the Post data. Discussion and conclusion: In the research study, majority of group have oral swab wipes is effective in decrease thirst and xerostomia of the patients, admitted in the Critical Care wards. This result is based on statistical outcomes.