Effect of Transitional Care Program for Stroke Patients and Family Caregivers on Caregiver’s Preparedness, Stress, Adaptation, and Satisfaction

Abstract

ABSTRACT

 This study was a quasi-experimental study aiming to explore the effect of the transitional care program for stroke patients and family caregivers during the transitional period from hospital to home on caregivers’ preparedness, stress,the conceptua adaptation, and satisfaction. This program was developed based on the framework of Transitional Care Model by Naylor combined with reviewing the literature. Samples were purposively selected. Participants comprised of 60 pairs of patients and their family caregivers that were equally divided into control and experimental groups. The control group received usual nursing care provided by nurses in a hospital and the experimental group received usual nursing care provided by nurses in a hospital plus the transitional care program. Research Instrument consisted of: 1) screening instruments which were composed of the Set Test and the Barthel Index of Activities of Daily Living; 2) the experimental instruments which were composed of the transitional care program for stroke patients and family caregivers during the transitional period from hospital to home, and a care-givers’ handbook and a lesson plan for caring patients and self-caring; and 3) the instruments for collecting data which were composed of  a questionnaire on demographic data, the assessment tools of family caregivers’ preparedness, stress, adaptation, satisfaction and a record form for home visits and telephone contact. The study was conducted from December B.E. 2556 to April B.E. 2558. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation). The hypotheses were tested by using chi-square and t-test.

The results showed that the mean scores of family care-givers’ preparedness, stress and satisfaction in the experimental group one month after discharge was higher than those in the control group. The scores of adaptation of family caregivers in the experimental and control groups after intervention was not statistically significant different.

A long-term program should be conducted to follow the adaptation of family caregivers.. 

Keywords: Transitional care, Stroke caregiver, Preparedness, Stress,   Adaptation