Aim: To assess the effects of family nursing conversations on family caregiver burden, patients' quality of life, family functioning and the amount of professional home health care.
Design: A controlled before-and-after design.
Methods: Intervention group families participated in two family nursing conversations incorporated in home health care; control group families received usual home health care. Patients and family members completed a set of questionnaires on entering the study and 6 months later to assess family caregiver burden, family functioning and patients' quality of life. The amount of home health care was extracted from patient files. Data were collected between January 2018-June 2019.
Results: Data of 51 patients (mean age 80; 47% male) and 61 family members (mean age 67; 38% male) were included in the results. Family caregiver burden remained stable in the intervention group whereas it increased in the control group. Family functioning improved significantly compared with the control group for patients and family members in the intervention group. No significant effects on patients' quality of life emerged. The amount of professional home health care decreased significantly in the intervention group whereas it remained equal in the control group.
Conclusion: Family nursing conversations prevented family caregiver burden, improved family functioning, but did not affect patients' quality of life. In addition, the amount of home health care decreased following the family nursing conversations.
Impact: Countries with ageing populations seek to reduce professional and residential care and therefore encourage family caregiving. Intensive family caregiving, however, places families at risk for caregiver burden which may lead to increased professional care and admission into residential care. This study demonstrates that family nursing conversations help nurses to prevent family caregiver burden and improve family functioning while decreasing the amount of home health care.
目标: 探讨家庭护理交谈对家庭照料人员负担、患者生活质量、家庭功能及专业家庭保健服务量的影响。 设计: 前后对照研究。 方法: 干预组家庭在家庭护理服务中加入两次家庭护理交谈;对照组家庭接受常规的家庭护理服务。患者和家属在研究期间和6个月后完成一组问卷调查,以评估家庭照料人员的负担、家庭功能和患者生活质量。从患者档案中提取家庭护理服务量。收集2018年1月至2019年6月之间的数据。 结果: 结果中包含51名患者(平均年龄80岁;47%为男性)和61名家庭成员(平均年龄67岁;38%为男性)的数据。家庭照料人员的负担在干预组中保持稳定,但在对照组中呈现增长。与对照组相比,干预组患者和家庭成员的家庭功能明显改善。对患者生活质量无显著影响。在干预组中,专业家庭护理量显著减少,而在对照组中保持不变。 结论: 家庭护理交谈能避免造成家庭照料人员的负担,改进家庭功能,且不影响患者的生活质量。此外,家庭护理交谈后,家庭护理量有所减少。 影响: 人口老龄化国家寻求减少专业护理和住院护理,鼓励家庭护理。然而,密集的家庭护理使家庭照料人员面临负担增加的风险,可能导致专业护理和住院护理增加。本研究显示,家庭护理交谈有助于护士在减少家庭护理量的同时,减轻家庭照料人员的负担,以及改善家庭功能。.
Keywords: caregiver burden; family caregivers; family functioning; family nursing conversations; family systems nursing; home health care; nursing.
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.