RESEARCH THESIS

Research Proposal
Student: (Kyle) Kurt Freund
Instructor: Rick E. Amidon, Ph.D.
Spring 2013 Mixed Delivery EN 321-Metro Thursday
April, 18th, 2013

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Summary of Current State of Knowledge

The author of this research, (Kyle) Kurt Freund, has been a critical care registered nurse
(RN) since April 2006. Prior to obtaining his RN, he worked in direct patient care for eleven
years in emergency, physical therapy, sports medicine, family practice, and a Medicaid health
clinic as a Registered Medical Assistant. Years of bedside experiences as a health care provider,
Freund notices the struggles of patients stricken with debilitating injuries and illnesses.
Freunds father was a pastor. He grew up studying his gift of encouraging people at
different moments of their lives. Beyond the researchers vocational knowledge are his personal
experiences of working with people struggling at different stages of their lives with addiction,
spiritual bankruptcy, and hitting their bottom. Freund struggled as a teenager with alcoholism,
hospitalizations from traumatic injuries and finally inpatient treatment for addiction. He met an
old man during this stage in his life. That shared with him that Freund was at a pivotal point in
his life where he could receive The gift of desperation. . The lovable but gruff Gordy invested
in Freund for 18 years till Gordys death in 2007. Gordy motivated Freund to become a strong
man, dedicated father, and productive member of society with only one request in return; to give
it away freely to those who were at points in their lives that they were willing to listen.
One avenue that Freund has found to live up to his promise is by studying and teaching in
Shorin Ryu Okinawan Karate. As a fourth degree black belt, Freund continues to enlighten
fellow practitioners of training beyond the often underestimated realizations of what they are
truly capable of.
Freund is actively involved in the Native American Community and appreciates the
holistic approach of supporting every member to their fullest potential. Freund respectfully hears
the teachings the elders offer. Freund currently sings on the Drum of Three Fires with the

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Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians. He values highly this sacred

expression of the ancient ways of supporting the individual and community through songs,
stories and shared experiences.
Currently Freunds personal and vocational experiences come together as he specializes
in motivating patients in critical care who are at the pivotal points of dependency on mechanical
ventilation. Freund offers motivational ways for patients to gain the strength to wean off the
ventilator and breathe on their own. Without this inner drive to push forward, Freund notices
that patients plummet into deeper levels of depression. This will debilitate them into a lost cloud
of anxiety, increased sedation, and lethargy. These patients are deemed difficult to wean and, if
their strength from within is not tapped into, they will remain ventilator dependent for prolonged
periods of time.
Mission for Research
With these experiences and current state of knowledge Freund hopes to research and
study further ways of encouraging people at their most desperate moments of need. The
struggles for an independent breath can seem unobtainable to those who have failed for various
physiological and psychological reasons. Each assisted-ventilation can, without effective coping
mechanisms, bring a patient into a debilitating depression. This complicates progression beyond
respiratory dependence.
Thesis Statement
Do various holistic medical approaches with critically ventilator dependent patients have
an effect on the length of mechanical respiratory dependence? What are the attributes of
effective coping skills for patients recovering from critical illness or injury? And what is the

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practicality of emotionally supportive nursing care for the critically ventilated patient and its
effects on decreased ventilator dependency?
Research considerations
Nurses caring for critically recovering patients have seen the difference in prognosis
proportional to the level of healthy conscious coping mechanisms utilized during the difficult
turning points of the patients condition. During ventilator required respirations, patients reach a
point of needing to tap into where they gain their strength from in order to breath independently
again. Beyond the physiological considerations are the questions of what and how these patients
can be encouraged effectively.
Cultural, societal, age specificity, personality traits, length/degree of injuries, prior
injuries, patients baseline health reserve, patients level of communication, stated understanding
of prognosis, family/friend support, psychological disciplines involved with care, and prior to
injury methods of coping skills are all important aspects to be considered for this study?
Plan of Data Analysis and Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this research are to study the attributes of various holistic medical
approaches with critically ventilator dependent patients and its effect on length of mechanical
respiratory dependence. Present and past cultural considerations of societies that have
successfully utilized the full potentials of people in extreme circumstances will also be
researched in hopes of discovering correlating methods of emotionally supportive nursing
practices. This will also include interviews with past patients, nursing informatics review, and
coordinated research with critical care associates.

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5
Literature Search to Develop the Thesis

Dibert, C. (2009). Families with loved ones on mechanical ventilation in the ICU found a way to
face "living with dying". Evidence Based Nursing, 12(3), 96. doi:http://0dx.doi.org.libcat.ferris.edu/10.1136/ebn.12.3.96

EFFECT OF INTENSIVE CARE EXPERIENCE OF A NURSE WHO WAS DEPENDENT ON

MECHANICAL VENTILATOR UPON HER EXPERIENCES AND NURSING CARE:
SAMPLE CASE STUDY. (2012). CONNECT: The World of Critical Care Nursing, 9(1),
8-9. .

Grossman, M., J, Lee, V., Chambers-Evans, J., Godin, M., & McHarg, L. (1999). Emotional
distress in critically-injured patients three months after a potentially life-threatening
accident. Journal Of Neuroscience Nursing, 31(3), 159-173.

Linnarsson, J., Bubini, J., & Perseius, K. (2010). Review: a meta-synthesis of qualitative
research into needs and experiences of significant others to critically ill or injured
patients. Journal Of Clinical Nursing, 19(21/22), 3102-3111. doi:http://0dx.doi.org.libcat.ferris.edu/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2010.03244.x

Plakas, S., Boudioni, M., Fouka, G., & Taket, A. (2011). The role of religiosity as a coping
resource for relatives of critically ill patients in Greece. Contemporary Nurse: A Journal
For The Australian Nursing Profession, 39(1), 95-105. doi:http://0dx.doi.org.libcat.ferris.edu/10.5172/conu.2011.39.1.95

Wong, H., Lopez-Nahas, V., & Molassiotis, A. (2001). Effects of music therapy on anxiety in
ventilator-dependent patients. Heart & Lung, 30(5), 376-387.