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Learning Objective 1: 1. The learners will be able to describe the differences of family caregivers’ demographic characteristics between USA and Taiwanese family caregivers.
Learning Objective 2: 2. The learners will be able to describe the differences of family caregivers’ reactions between USA and Taiwanese family caregivers.
The purpose of this study was to compare family caregivers’ demographic characteristics and caregiving reactions between USA and Taiwanese family caregivers with hospitalized relatives who diagnosed with cancer.
Methods:
This study was based on Madeleine Leininger’s culture theory. A convenience sample of 91 Taiwanese and 110 USA family caregivers of hospitalized patients diagnosed with cancer were recruited. A cross-sectional, comparison design was used. Data were collected by structured questionnaires. SPSS 16 was used to do data analysis.
Results:
The findings indicated that there were significant differences between USA and Taiwanese family caregivers’ demographic characteristics. According to t-test, the findings indicated that there were significant differences between Taiwanese and USA family caregivers and patients including caregivers’ age, monthly income, patients’ age, patients’ eating ability, psychological well-being, quality of relationship between caregivers and care receivers, caregiving knowledge, impact on health, impact on schedule, and total family caregiver burden. Taiwanese and USA family caregivers had significantly different attitude about the question, “Do you think family caregivers need to spend a long time in the hospital, if nurses provide a total care for your ill relatives?”
Conclusions:
The majority of Taiwanese family caregivers felt they had a need to spend a long time in the hospital. They had higher negative impact on their health, schedule, and higher total caregiving burden than USA family caregivers. The majority of USA family caregivers were Christian, had better scores of psychological well-being, longer caregiving experiences, higher income, higher education level, better caregiving knowledge, and better quality of relationship with ill relatives than family caregivers in Taiwan.