Clinical indicators of ineffective airway clearance for patients in the cardiac postoperative period

Abstract

Background: The accuracy of an indicator determines the direct relationship between a defining characteristic and the presence or absence of a specific nursing diagnosis. Aims: To analyse the accuracy of the clinical indicators of ineffective airway clearance in patients during the postoperative period of cardiac surgery. Methods: A total of 98 patients recruited from a postoperative unit were included in the study. An analysis of sensitivity, specificity, predictive value, likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, accuracy, and area under the ROC curve was used to determine the accuracy of these clinical indicators. Results: Four clinical indicators showed the highest levels of accuracy by statistical measure: dyspnoea, adventitious breath sounds, ineffective cough, and retained secretions. The indicators retained secretions and ineffective cough showed high diagnostic odds ratios (62.8 and 28.1, respectively). Conclusion: The results suggest that there are differences between the ineffective airway clearance indicators as accuracy measures. © The European Society of Cardiology 2012.