Abstract
Background: Intensive care unit patients who have been admitted are susceptible to hypoxemia
associated with hepatic diseases and ascites. Hypoxemia should be detected at an early stage to
prevent serious consequences. Aim: Assess the effect of the implementation nursing measures
about hypoxemia for critically ill patients suffering from ascites at medical intensive care unit.
Design: An experimental quasi-design. Setting: This study was performed at the Medical
Intensive Care Unit at Tanta Main University Hospital. Subjects: Purposive sampling of 80 adult
patients with hypoxemia and meeting all inclusion criteria were separated into two equal groups,
with each group including 40 patients. Tools: Three tools were used in the process of data
collecting. Tool (I): Critically Ill Hepatic Patients Assessment Tool. Tool (II): Hypoxemia
Indicators Assessment Tool. Tool (III): The Ascites Symptom Inventory-7 for (ASI-7) Scale
Assessment. Result: The main results revealed an improvement in relation to physiological
parameters, respiratory assessment in study than control group, significant difference between
patients in the study group regarding body temperature with P=0.000. Statistically significant
difference was observed related to oxygen saturation, dyspnea and chest pain assessment among
the control and study group with P=0.000. Conclusion: Nursing measures had a positive effect on
decreasing hypoxemia by improving oxygen saturation, physiological parameters and reducing
dyspnea, chest pain. Recommendation: Data generalizability via replication of the same research
using a bigger probability sample in other geographic regions