The Effectiveness of the Mobile Application Insight ICU Program on Uncertainty in Illness of Patients’ Families in Intensive Care Units
Keywords:
Uncertainty in illness, Patient’s family, Mobile application program, Intensive care unitAbstract
The admission of patients to the intensive care unit causes their families to develop uncertainty in illness because they are unable to explain, make sense of, or predict the patients’ outcomes. This particularly affects the mental well-being of patients’ families in intensive care units. This quasi-experimental research aimed to examine the effectiveness of the mobile application Insight ICU program on uncertainty in illness among patient’s families in the intensive care unit of a super tertiary hospital in Bangkok. A total of 128 patients’ families were divided into a control group (64 participants), receiving usual care, and an intervention group (64 participants), receiving usual care along with the mobile application Insight ICU program for five days. Participants could access the research tool, the mobile application Insight ICU program, at any time. The data collection tools included a personal data questionnaire and the Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale-Family Member Form, which had a reliability coefficient of 0.88. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired t-test, and independent t-test.
The results showed that patients’ families who received the mobile application Insight ICU program had moderate uncertainty in illness scores. The average uncertainty in illness scores significantly decreased, both overall and in specific aspects (p < .001) and were also significantly lower compared to the control group (p = .003).
These findings suggest that the mobile application Insight ICU program effectively reduces uncertainty in illness. Therefore, the program should be applied to patients’ families in the intensive care unit, and long-term studies and follow-ups should be conducted.
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