The effect of hygienic care practices given to stroke patients on vital signs of patients: A self-comparison pre-experimental study.

The study had no control group and no random assignment, so it cannot show that bathing caused the vital sign changes. Patients were receiving mechanical ventilation and routine ICU care at the same time, so the bath is not the only possible influence on heart rate, blood pressure, temperature or blood gases. The sample was limited to bedridden, mechanically ventilated stroke patients in ICUs in one region of Turkey, so results may not apply to other stroke patients. Some patients were excluded because they died, were discharged, transferred, or were weaned from ventilation, so the analysed group may not represent all eligible patients. Because all patients were on mechanical ventilation, respiratory rate and depth could not be assessed independently.

Do not conclude that wiping baths are clinically better than full bed baths or that bathing improves outcomes. The study had no control group, and other ICU care and patient factors could have produced the changes.