Communication Enhancement Among Ventilated Patients in Intensive Care

Intensive care is a unit that admits ventilated patients. Hospitalization is extremely challenging for these patients. Their vital prognosis is at stake, and they often have difficulty moving due to pain, edema, neuromyopathy, or the presence of monitoring cables. They are also hindered in their communication: they cannot speak because of the presence of the intubation tube between their vocal cords or the tracheostomy cannula with the inflated cuff. Every day, in each intensive care unit, about 50% of ventilated patients are conscious and face communication difficulties. They describe this difficulty as a "nightmare." This leads to challenges in care management and increases the anxiety caused by hospitalization in the intensive care unit. A large proportion of patients will develop post-intensive care syndrome. The tools currently used are not efficient. Moreover, many patients have comprehension difficulties due to the medications administered to them (sedatives) or due to the initial or secondary pathologies related to their hospitalization (confusional syndrome, ICU delirium). Our objective is to implement an adapted and personalized communication tool for ventilated patients in intensive care.