The Efficiency of Breathing Exercises Performed on COVID-19 Patients After Intensive Care

Aim of research The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching breathing exercises to COVID-19 patients after intensive care.

Type of research The research is a randomized controlled and pretest-posttest applied design. Research Population and Sample Selection The population of the research will consist of patients who have been previously admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital where the research will be conducted and who meet the research criteria. In order to determine the sample size, a priori power analysis was performed and it was determined that at least 35 patients were required for each of the intervention and control groups in order for the power of the study to exceed 80% at the 95% confidence interval, 0.05 significance level and medium effect size. Considering that there may be data loss due to various reasons, 80 patients are planned to be included in the sample of the study.

Data collection tools and features The data of the study are "Patient Information Form" and "Data Registration Form", "Care dependency scale", "Health Screening short form-36", "Saint George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), "Respiratory Function Test", "Respiratory Exercises Information Booklet" and "Breathing Exercises Information Booklet".

1. Data Registration Form. It is the form in which the blood pressure, pulse, respiration, body temperature, oxygen saturation values taken twice a day, before and after exercise, are recorded.
2. Patient Identification Form. Patients have name-surname, age, gender, height, weight, BMI, educational status, occupation, marital status, clinical data (history, family history, medications used, use of assistive devices, smoking history, respiratory system evaluation) and exercise habits.
3. Care dependency scale. In the study, this scale was used to determine the care dependency of the patients.

The lowest score obtained from the scale is 17 and the highest score is 85. A high scale score indicates that the individual is independent in meeting their care needs, while a low scale score indicates that the individual is dependent on meeting their care needs. 4. Baseline dyspnea scale Mahler et al. It was developed by 1984. The validity and reliability of the Basal Dyspnea Scale in our country have been made by different researchers, and the scale evaluates dyspnea due to activity; It measures in three different areas: functional status (level of performing activities of daily living), effort capacity (difficult efforts to perform activities) and work capacity. 5. Health Screening short form-36 Short Form-36 (Short Form-36 Health Survey - SF-36) will be used to assess overall health-related quality of life. SF-36 is a self-rating scale. Subscales evaluate health on a scale of 0-100, with 0 indicating poor health and 100 indicating good health. 6. Saint George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) The Saint George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) will be used to assess the disease-specific quality of life. The SGRQ is a questionnaire in which patients self-answer questions. The questionnaire, which consists of three categories, questions the effects of symptoms, activity and illness on daily life. It is considered to be more standardized than other health-related quality of life questionnaires. It is mostly used in COPD, asthma and bronchiectasis. It has an evaluation scale between 0-100 points in the questionnaire consisting of a total of 76 questions. Zero indicates best health and 100 indicates worst health. 7. Pulmonary Function Test Pulmonary function tests are an objective method used in the diagnosis and follow-up of the disease. Pulmonary function tests were performed in a sitting position with a computer compatible spirometer