Unlike other studies with a defined length of
intervention time, this study was based on the
patients’ inpatient stay. Therefore, the length of
study varied with individual patients, which
may affect the role that time plays on the
outcome measures. As this was a randomized
trial with almost equal mean inpatient stay
length in both groups (18.7 4.2 days in
the control group vs. 18.3 3.5 days in the
experimental group, p ¼ .73), the two groups
were considered comparable overall in terms
of the effect of time. In addition, the variance
in inpatient stay is what actually occurs in a
clinical setting, which indicates the clinical
applicability of our intervention.