Efficacy of Early Enhanced Occupational Therapy in an Intensive Care Unit (EFFORT-ICU): A Single-Site Feasibility Trial

Importance: This research trial contributes to the evidence for occupational therapy service delivery in intensive care settings.

Objective: To explore the feasibility of a trial to evaluate the impact of early enhanced occupational therapy on mechanically ventilated patients in intensive care.

Design: Single-site assessor-blinded randomized controlled feasibility trial.

Setting: Level 5 8-bed adult medical-surgical intensive care unit (ICU) at Logan Hospital, Brisbane, Australia.

Participants: Participants were 30 mechanically ventilated patients randomly allocated to two groups.

Outcomes And Measures: We compared standard care with enhanced occupational therapy with outcomes measured at discharge from the ICU, hospital discharge, and 90 days post randomization. The primary outcome measure was the FIM®. Secondary outcomes included the Modified Barthel Index (MBI); Montreal Cognitive Assessment; grip strength, measured using a dynamometer; Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; and the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (Version 2). The intervention group received daily occupational therapy, including cognitive stimulation, upper limb retraining, and activities of daily living. Data were analyzed using independent groups t tests and effect sizes.

Results: Measures and procedures were feasible. A significant difference was found between groups on FIM Motor score at 90 days with a large effect size (p = .05, d = 0.76), and MBI scores for the intervention group approached significance (p = .051) with a large effect size (d = 0.75) at 90 days. Further moderate to large effect sizes were obtained for the intervention group for cognitive status, functional ability, and quality of life.

Conclusions And Relevance: This trial demonstrated that occupational therapy is feasible and beneficial in the ICU. Criteria to progress to a full-scale randomized controlled trial were met. This study contributes to embedding ongoing consistency of practice and scope of service delivery for occupational therapy in this field. What This Article Adds: Occupational therapists should be considered core team members in the critical care-ICU, with funding to support ongoing service provision and optimization of patient outcomes based on effective and feasible service delivery.