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Learning Objective 1: Understand the experience and associated factors of cancer patients’ family caregivers.
Learning Objective 2: Improve cancer patients and their family caregivers’ physical, mental, spiritual well beings.
Methods: This study was a descriptive, correlational, cross-sectional study. Eighty cancer patients’ family caregivers were invited to participate in this study. Study instrument was a structured questionnaire. Content of the instrument included patients and their family caregivers’ individual characteristics, caregivers’ caring situation, The Chinese version of the short form of Profile of Mood States, M. D. Anderson symptom inventory: Taiwan Form, Brief Assessment Scale for Caregivers, and 8 self-developed items related to family caregivers’ experience of consenting to DNR. In this study, the Brief Assessment Scale for Caregivers and a self-developed scale related to family caregivers’ experience of consenting to DNR were used to measure caregivers’ experience. Data analyses included descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation test, and hierarchical regression analysis.
Results: Caregivers’ experience measured by Brief Assessment Scale for Caregivers was associated with family caregivers’ emotional status. Patients’ age, family caregivers' age, educational level, living with patients or not, patients’ symptom severity and symptom interference with life and functional status perceived by family caregivers, and family caregivers’ emotional status were related to caregivers’ experience of consenting to DNR. Hierarchical regression model accounted for 73.1% (p= 0.00) of variance in family caregivers’ experience of consenting to DNR and the main predictors included patients’ living wills, family caregivers' age, gender, educational level, living with patients or not, and emotional status.
Conclusion: Study results of this study could be used to develop clinical education programs about end of life care. We hope that effective communications between patients, family caregivers, and health care providers would improve the care of cancer patients and their family caregivers, and ease family caregivers’ negative experience while they consented to DNR.