The Empowerment of Caregivers on Rehabilitation for Stroke Patients in Uthai Hospital

Abstract

This action research aimed to develop knowledge and skills of rehabilitation among stroke caregivers and to promote empowerment of stroke caregivers. This study was conducted during September to November 2021. There were three phases in this research procedure. Phase 1 was a situation analysis process regarding rehabilitation process in stroke patients. Phase 2 was to develop a self-empowerment program that proposed by the concept of self-empowerment (Gibson, 1993). Phase 3 was to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Participants were 30 patient-caregiver pairs. Five research participants who developed the program were the head nurse of the department, two staff nurses, one physiotherapist, and one nurse from the sub-district health promotion hospital. The research tool was the caregiver empowerment program for stroke rehabilitation. The data collection instruments were: 1) an interview questionnaire for a situation analysis process; 2) the caregiver empowerment questionnaire for stroke rehabilitation; 3) the Barthel Index for Activities of Daily Living (ADL) assessment. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired sample t-test. The statistical significance level was set at the 0.05 level.

The results showed that after receiving the program, the mean score of knowledge about cerebrovascular disease, rehabilitation skills, and perceived empowerment of caregivers of stroke patients was significant higher than before enrolling the program (p-value<0.05). The ability to perform daily activities of stroke patients was also significant higher than before enrolling the program (p-value<0.05). Nurses and other health care providers can apply or develop this program to promote empowerment of caregivers on rehabilitation for patients with other chronic conditions.