Effect of Applying Acupressure on the Clinical Outcomes of Critically Ill Children with Respiratory Tract Infections: An Integrative Nursing Approach

Background: Respiratory tract infections are heterogeneous and complex group of diseases that require
pharmaceutical interventions with undesirable side effects. Thus, integration of acupressure in the care of
children with respiratory problems may be effective with regard to management of respiratory distress and
prevention of medicinal treatment side effects. Aim: To investigate the effect of applying acupressure on the
clinical outcomes of critically ill children with respiratory tract infections. Methods: Quasi-experimental, pre-
posttests, research design was carried out at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of El-Shatby University Hospital in
Alexandria, Egypt. Subjects were 60 eligible children who were assigned into two equal groups. The control
group received the routine care of the unit only whereas the study group received acupressure in addition to
routine care. Findings: Degree of dyspnea decreased dramatically among the study group after three days of
acupressure as 56.7% were not troubled at all by dyspnea compared to only 3.3% of children in the control group.
Regarding degree of respiratory impairment, all children in study group experienced mild respiratory impairment
in the 2nd and 3rd days of the study period (100% in each) compared to the control group (23.3% and16.7%
respectively) with significant statistical differences (p= 0.000 in each day). Conclusion and
recommendations: Integrating acupressure with conventional medical therapy could decrease the severity of
dyspnea and enhance pulmonary functioning. In that sense, acupressure was proved to be promising in
improving respiratory problems among children with respiratory tract infections. Accordingly, pediatric
intensive care nurses can accelerate the improvement of those children using such non-pharmacological
approach with the pharmacological one.