The Empowerment of Caregivers for Rehabilitation of Stroke Patients at Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital

Abstract

This action research aimed to achieve the caregivers’ empowerment in rehabilitation and
help them combine and apply their skills and knowledge on practice to stroke patients, and focusing
on the results of empowerment program, at Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital. This study was
conducted during March to May 2017, and consisted of 3 stages: 1) situation analysis of the
rehabilitation after stroke, 2) developing self empowerment program concepts self empowerment
(Gibson, 1993), and 3) evaluation the effif icacy of the program after fif inishing by perceived self
empowerment questionnaires. Using purposive sampling, 30 patient-caregiver pairs, 4 physiotherapists,

and 1 physiatrist were invited to participate in the study, completing a set of questionnaires, in pre-post
empowerment program, including baseline characteristics, skills and knowledge on practice to stroke
patients, caregiver perception of self-empowerment, and activities of daily living performance in stroke
patients. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics: frequency, mean, standard deviation, min,
max, paired sample t-test, and content analysis After the developing self empowerment program,
the caregivers can combine and apply their skills and knowledge on practice to stroke patients,
their skill, knowledge, perception on self empowerment, and Barthel ADL Index of stroke patients
were statistically signif ificant higher than that before (p<0.05). The Results of the developing founded
that after the development : caregivers had the knowledge, skill, self-power and Barthel ADL Index
of stroke patients statistically significant higher than that before the development (p<0.05).