Leveraging Smart Health Technologies in Critical Care Nursing to Enhance Palliative Care Quality for End-of-Life Patients

Abstract

Background: In the intensive care unit (ICU), managing end-of-life (EOL) care is often hindered by delayed symptom recognition and communication gaps. Smart Health Technologies (SHT)—including AI-driven symptom monitors, wearable biosensors, and digital communication tools offer a specialized framework for nurses to transition from curative to palliative goals more effectively.Aim of the study: Evaluate the effect of integrating Smart Health Technologies on critical care nursing to enhance palliative care quality for end-of-life patients. Methods: A quasi-experimental, one-group pretest-posttest study was conducted. The sample consisted of 50 critical care nurses and 50 EOL patients was included using convenience sampling from intensive care units at Sohag university hospitals. Data were collected using the Demographic Data Sheet which divided to Part I: Nurses’ Demographic and Professional Data Sheet and Part II: Patients’ Clinical and Demographic Data Sheet, Palliative Care Quality Assessment Tool for patients, and the Nursing Competency in EOL Care Scale for nurses, administered before and after the technological intervention. Results:Post-intervention results showed a statistically significant improvement in care outcomes (p < 0.001). Patients reported a 35% reduction in unmanaged pain scores and a significant increase in spiritual and emotional comfort due to proactive nursing interventions triggered by smart sensors.Nurses’ confidence in EOL care management increased by 42%. The use of AI-driven alerts significantly reduced the time-to-intervention for respiratory distress by an average of 15 minutes compared to pre-intervention manual monitoring. Families of the 50 patients reported higher satisfaction with the frequency and clarity of updates facilitated by the smart digital interface. Conclusion: The integration of Smart Health Technologies into critical care nursing significantly enhances the quality of life for EOL patients by enabling precise, proactive symptom management. For nurses, these technologies reduce the cognitive load and provide decision support that fosters more compassionate and timely palliative care. These findings suggest that SHT should be a standard component of ICU palliative protocols to ensure a dignified dying process.

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