ICU插管患者通过E-Z板进行交流

由于气管插管通过声带，许多重症患者无法表达自己的需求。为改变这种令人沮丧的局面，一个学生发明了一种信息交流板帮助患者告知护理者他们的需求。

使用机械通气的患者无法表达感情、确认需求以及通过语言交流来面对恐惧、焦虑和压力。“你不能仅仅通过客观现象来治疗患者”，加州大学洛杉矶分校（the University of California in Los Angeles，UCLA）David Geffen医学院一位三年级医学生Lance California说，“听任处于危险期的患者不能有效地与人交流，不仅仅是一种疏忽大意还是一种不仁慈的行为，并且不能为医疗实践所接受的。在任何情况下，我们都应该接受来自患者的主观体验。”

在过去数年中，在作为前UCLA医学中心的护士照顾了许许多多这种重症患者之后，1998年他萌生了这种想法：设计一种便于使用的具有明确含义的交流板，这样插管患者能够使用标签笔做简单的标记，将他们的需求告知他们的护理者和家庭成员。

使用这种轻便柔软的E-Z板，患者就可以表达基本的需求，诸如口渴、寒冷和疼痛，或者诸如想坐起来、活动、洗脸的想法，或者是简单地说“谢谢你”。所有这一切只要使用一种易于擦拭的记号笔在适当的选择上作个标记即可。

一般情况下，机械通气患者通过便条来传递他们需求。但是这些便条通常字迹模糊，或者拼写错误百出。结果护理者不得不试图理解患者的非语言交流方式，诸如怪脸、手势、点头和书写，这些对重症患者是十分困难的。这些非语言交流方法令这些患者十分疲劳的，也是一种感情的宣泄。

英文原文：

Intensive Care: Intubated Patients Communicate via E-Z Board

Many critically ill patients cannot communicate their needs due to the endotracheal tubes that go through their vocal cords. To ease this frustrating situation, a student invented a communication board helping the patient to inform its caregiver of all conceivable needs.

Mechanically ventilated patients are unable to vocalize feelings, verify perceptions and cope with fears, anxiety and stress through verbal communication. "You cannot treat a patient based on objective data alone," says Lance Patak, third-year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). "To leave a patient unable to communicate effectively at a critical time is not only negligent, but is unkind and not grounded in medical practice. We have to obtain subjective information from the patient whenever possible."

Over the years, the former UCLA Medical Center nurse cared for many of these critically ill patients. In 1998 he came up with the idea of an easy-to-use augmentative communication board that intubated patients could use to make their needs known to their caregivers and family members with a simple mark of a felt-tipped pen.

With the lightweight, flexible E-Z Board the patient can communicate basic needs like thirst, cold and pain or signal intentions like to sit up, to exercise, to clean his face or simply to say "Thank you". All require no more effort than marking a box next to the appropriate selection with an attached wet-erase marker.

Generally, mechanically ventilated patients relay their needs via notes which are frequently illegible or an alphabet sheet which often ends up with a lot of misspellings. As a result, the caregiver is forced to interpret the patients' non-verbal communication such as mouthing, gesticulating, nodding and writing - which can be difficult for the critically ill patient. Such nonverbal methods are fatiguing and emotionally draining for these patients.