Effect of The Supportive-Educative Nursing Program on Capability of Family Caregiver For Caring Post Stroke

Abstract

Background: Stroke patients who have recovered from the critical period and are undergoing the recovery period at home are highly dependent on caregivers. Therefore, the caregiver’s ability is essential for the patient’s potential recovery and prevention of disability complications.

Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of the supportive educative nursing programme on the capability of the family caregivers, self-care ability, and complications in post-stroke patients.

Materials and Methods: This research was a quasi-experimental study of two groups with a pre-post intervention design. The intervention group comprised newly diagnosed stroke patients and their main caregivers. There were 28 participants in each intervention and comparison group. The experimental group received supportive and educative nursing care in a stroke rehabilitation programme, which applied a self-care theory, disease literacy, and two sessions of home visits and telephone counselling over a period of eight weeks. The data were collected from questionnaires, a guided interview, and direct observation of any disease complications at the baseline and post-intervention period. Data analysis was performed by descriptive statistics, and the hypothesis was tested by using an independent t-test and paired t-test. 

Results: The results revealed that the main caregiver in the experimental group demonstrated a higher caregiver ability and confidence score in the post-intervention period than the pre-intervention period that displayed statistical significance (p-value < 0.01). The mean difference of the caring practices score among the intervention group at the post-intervention period was also higher than the baseline score and the comparison group that displayed statistical significance (p-value < 0.01). In addition, the self-care ability in stroke patients in the experimental group was statistically significantly higher than the comparison group, and the incidence of stroke complications was also lower than the baseline period and the comparison group that displayed statistical significance. (p-value < 0.05).

Conclusion: This supportive educative nursing programme was effective, and could be applied in the strengthening of the caregivers’ capability in stroke patient home rehabilitation.