Emotional Management Problems of Caregivers for Dependent Elderly People: Integrative Review

Abstract

The integrative review was to summarize the empirical or theoretical understanding of health problem and nursing science1. This study had the purpose to synthesize the management of emotions of caregivers who took care of elderly people in terms of nursing literature by usage of the technical procedure that met with the five stages which Whittemore and Knafl2 published in 2005. Materials and methods: A literature review of nursing literature in qualitative design of many source publication of emotional caregivers in elderly people. CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health), PubMed, SienceDirect and PsycINFO. From the literature available, four core themes were generated. A theme emerged in this study included atmosphere of caring (1: caring relationships 2: caring places 3: caring environments: rural communities). The second theme was coping which comprised of 1) religious coping 2) emotional coping 3) acceptance 4) engagement in leisure activities and 5) traditional healing. Another theme was the potential to care which composed of 1) capabilities in the context of caregiving employment 2) capability, caregiving, and emotions 3) The capability to care, and strength perspective. The last theme was understanding which comprised of 1) caregiving as obligation and privilege 2) ambiguity surrounding care and worries 3) kin keeping with communication technology and 4) negotiating knowledge and tension in rural care settings. This integrative review was offered to provide a good understanding of underlying issues on managing the emotions of caregivers to be appropriate with caring elderly people. From four themes, this integrative review led to an evidence based practice to support caregivers to manage their emotions. Further studies should address how to support caregivers who took care of dependent older people.