Nursing Research, need your advice regarding Trendelenburg position

[Snowbella]

Forgive me for having the nerve to ask you for help on my research. I am a 3rd year nursing student, my topic is "an experimental study on what position is effective in hypotensive patients". We are thought in class that whenever we have hypotensive clients is that we put them in trendelenburg position. But we found articles saying that trendelenburg is not effective in increasing Bp of hypotensive clients. So with my research, I wanna know if what position should a hypotensive patient be assisted, is it in trendelenburg, in flat position or in passive leg raising.

The problem is, I don't know what will be my statement of the problem and hypotheses, because it is an experimental study. Please do not advise me to seek help from my adviser, because, my adviser herself doesn't understand what i am trying to research.

This is what i have in mind:

Statement of the problem:

1. what is the demographic profile of the patient in terms of:

a. age

b. gender

2. is there a significant difference among the position of hypotensive patients.

Hypothesis:

there is no significant relationship between the position and the hypotensive patients.

Please help me edit it. I am just so desperate because the first time we did a defense last february, we were not accepted. So this is my second time already in trying to fix this research.

Thank you so much, i will greatly appreciate it.

[nefarious]

so you have a null hypothesis? i think that your null would prove you right. although it would be interesting how your research would turn out.

when i was still in the philippines, we were also taught that the trendelenberg position helps in raising the blood pressure of our hypotensive patients. we still even practice it in a large hospital in cebu. however, when i arrive here in the US my preceptor told me that that particular intervention fell out of favor years ago coz it didn't significantly raise the pt's bp. however, some nurses still do it as a supplementary intervention, so to speak, if no harm will come to the patient (ie,not intubated).

[Snowbella]

^Hi thanks for that reply, yeah, thats why i wanna know personally if trendelenburg really works, because if it is not effective anymore although it has not proven harmful either, i mean why use it if it doesn't make a difference? :)

Please post some more replies, greatly need your insights. Thanks

[xinammon, RN]

I have read somewhere that using the Trendelenburg position in hypotensive patients is an intervention under Class III (may be harmful; no benefit documented). Although some studies show increase in BP/CO, the effect is transient (1-7 minutes) and has no clinically significant changes in these patients even though it's still being used in resuscitation practices.

[Rene3]

Snowbella,

You have a BIG problem indeed, If at this time your adviser cannot help you in formulating a cohesive statement of the problem and a hypothesis, how could she help you further on. I have several questions first,

will you implement this research of yours?

Why this topic? Did you search for studies with regard to this topic? How many? How recent?

If you will implement it, where will you get your subjects? How many? How many patient to each intervention group?

Do you really want an experimental research? You have a picture of what you want to do but you need an adviser to guide you through the process. I am concerned that you are having difficulty now at this stage, how much more later.