Barriers to Early Mobility of Patients Hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit from the Point of View of Doctor, Nurse and Physiotherapist

Background and purpose: The concept of early mobility of a patient hospitalized in the intensive care unit is a very complex concept that requires interdepartmental coordination, energy expenditure and coordination of all the intensive care unit staff, including doctors, nurses, and physiotherapists. Early mobilization is safe, feasible and associated with positive results for the patient, medical staff, family and health system. In fact, this concept does not have a single definition and it has been mentioned in various texts, from getting out of bed as soon as possible to doing physical activity in bed and under mechanical ventilation. The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the barriers to early mobility of patients admitted to the special care department of the hospitals of Kohkiloye and Boyer Ahmed University of Medical Sciences. Method: This research is a cross-sectional descriptive study in 2019-2020. The samples  were the medical staff including doctors, nurses and physiotherapists working in Critical Care departments of hospitals affiliated to Kehkilouye and Boyer Ahmad University of Medical Sciences and was registered as a census. The data were collected through a demographic questionnaire and a researcher-made questionnaire on early mobility barriers of critical care unit patients and entered into SPSS version 18 software. Data analysis was done with the help of descriptive and analytical statistics. Results: In the present study, 174 nurses, doctors, and physiotherapists answered the questionnaire. 57.8% of the samples were women and most of the respondents (59.8%) were single. Based on the findings of this study, patient-related barriers have the lowest mean (0.411±0.108) and cultural barriers have the highest mean (0.478±0.146) among the barriers affecting early mobility. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, it is necessary to investigate the barriers to early mobility in patients admitted to the intensive care unit, especially the cultural barriers, and based on this, design a clinical guide and appropriate protocol to manage and reduce these barriers.