PSYCHOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF COMFORT IN PATIENTS UNDERGOING HEMODIALYSIS

Comfort is a state of met basic human needs, mental and physical well-being, physical, mental and environmental comfort, and final state of nursing therapeutic actions, which permeate the states of relief, calm, and transcendence. These elements combine with each other to generate unique responses.Objectives: Objectives of the study were to assess the psychological parameters of comfort (stress, anxiety, depression) in patients undergoing hemodialysis and to find out the association between psychological parameters of comfort with sociodemographic and clinical data of hemodialysis patients. Materials and Methods: A quantitative research approach and exploratory research design was used to assess psychological parameters of comfort in patients undergoing hemodialysis. Total 84 patients were selected bynon-probability convenience sampling technique for the research study. Perceived Stress Scale, Hamilton Anxiety Scale and Hamilton Depression Scale were used for assessing the psychological parameters of comfort.Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS (version 25).Results: During assessment of the psychological parameters, maximum hemodialysis patients 81% had mild anxiety,63.1% were mild symptoms of depression and56% of patients were having moderate stress. In association of PSS score with clinical variable, daily activity of patients was significantly associated at 0.05 level of significance. HAS score was significantly associated with sociodemographic variables, marital status(χ2=7.198, df=2, P=0.02) and education level of patients (χ2=7.198, df=2, P=0.02) and also associated with clinical variable comorbid conditions of patients(χ2=7.198, df=2, P=0.02). HDS score was significantly associated with sociodemographic variables like, education level (χ2=9.752, df=4, P=0045) and monthly income of the patients(χ2=14.314, df=6, P=0.026) and also associated with clinical variables, types of diet (χ2=27.891, df=2, P=0.00) and payment source of patients(χ2=6.132, df=2, P=0.047).Conclusion The study concluded that psychological parameters such as stress, anxiety and depression were prevalent among patients undergoing hemodialysis treatment. Hence, nurse working in the hemodialysis units requires more attention in considering the psychological aspects of these patients inorder to provide comprehensive nursing care to the patients and improving their comfort.