Effects of Enhancing Volunteers as Caregivers for Elderly People with Chronic Disease using Knowledge Sharing Reflection Method Focusing on Spiritual Wellbeing

Abstract

Thailand has now become the completed aged society. A number of elderly people have chronic diseases that affect their physical, mental, social, spiritual and dependency dimension. Therefore, those elderly people need volunteers to help providing cares for them, especially for the spiritual dimension.  As spiritual well-being is important for the elderly people with chronic illnesses to cope with, recover from, or adapt themselves to the illnesses, it gives hope and power for the wellbeing living to the elderly people. To develop the volunteer potential, it is necessary to use the KM with spiritual Reflection or Soft KM model. The purpose of this quasi-experimental research was to study the effects of enhancing volunteers as caregivers for elderly people using knowledge sharing reflection method. The samples were 34 elderly people with chronic diseases in the Mae Ngern Municipality area Chiang Saen District Chiang Rai Province.  Purposive sampling method was used to select the samples and each sample were randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group, 17 cases for each group. Cases in the experimental group were given cares by volunteer participants in the potential development program using knowledge management reflected spiritual thinking for 4 times whereas the control group received regular cares. Data were collected by using personal information interviews and the spiritual well-being assessment. The research was conducted according to the Enhancing Volunteer Spirit Program. Data were analyzed by using Independent t-test            The results revealed that the mean scores of spiritual well-being of the elderly people with chronic diseases in the community in the experimental group who received cares from volunteers ( = 124.65) were higher than those who received regular care ( = 118.88). There was no statistically significance. The volunteers who gave cares to the elderly people must passed the 6 process of Soft KM: 1) Spiritual knowledge and value searching, 2) Knowledge creating and finding, 3) learning and practicing, 4) systematic knowledge management, 5) knowledge screening and processing, 6) knowledge sharing