Factors Related to Family Caregivers' Readiness for the Hospital Discharge of Advanced Cancer Patients

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jul 1;19(13):8097. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19138097.

Abstract

Background: Many family caregivers of advanced cancer patients worry about being unable to provide in-home care and delay the discharge. Little is known about the influencing factors of discharge readiness. Methods: This study aimed to investigate the influencing factors of family caregivers' readiness, used a cross-sectional survey, and enrolled 123 sets of advanced cancer patients and family caregivers using convenience sampling from four oncology wards in a medical centre in northern Taiwan. A self-developed five-point Likert questionnaire, the "Discharge Care Assessment Scale", surveyed the family caregivers' difficulties with providing in-home care. Results: The study showed that the discharge readiness of family caregivers affects whether patients can be discharged home. Moreover, the influencing factors of family caregivers' discharge readiness were the patient's physical activity performance status and expressed discharge willingness; the presence of someone to assist family caregivers with in-home care; and the difficulties of in-home care. The best prediction model accuracy was78.0%, and the Nagelkerke R2 was 0.52. Conclusion: Discharge planning should start at the point of admission data collection, with the influencing factors of family caregivers' discharge readiness. It is essential to help patients increase the likelihood of being discharged home.

Keywords: caregivers; home care services; hospitalisation; palliative care; patient discharge.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Caregivers*
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Family
  • Hospitals
  • Humans
  • Neoplasms* / therapy
  • Patient Discharge

Grants and funding

The author(s) disclose receipt of the following financial support for the research of this article: This work was supported by a grant [MMH-108-114] from the Mackay Memorial Hospital and grant [109AC-D106] from the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan.