Learning Objective #1: Duplicate the method of developing a teaching package for caregivers to care for stroke patients

Learning Objective #2: Develop a teaching package for other patients and their caregivers

---

Objective: To develop a teaching package for caregivers to care for older patients with stroke and to test the usefulness of the teaching package for improving caregiving knowledge of caregivers. Design: A pretest-posttest quasi-experiment design was used with one group of caregivers. Population, Sample, and Setting: A sample, recruited by purposive sampling, consisted of thirty caregivers who cared for older patients with stroke admitted in medical and surgical wards in a university hospital, Bangkok, Thailand. Methods: The teaching package consisted of two booklets and videotape, which are identical in contents. The contents were developed from two brainstorming groups (caregiver and health care provider groups) and a literature review. The sample was asked to read the booklets and watch the videotape in a private room in the hospital. Then, they completed the questionnaires for knowledge evaluation and the interview form about their opinion toward the teaching package. Findings: Using Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test, it was found that knowledge of caregivers at posttest was significantly higher than at pretest. In addition, the caregivers reported that the contents in the teaching package were relevant and adequate to their needs, understandable, and practical. Conclusion: The contents of the instructional media for caregivers be developed in accordance with learning needs of the learner and not only on a literature review and professional validation. Therefore, the experience of caregivers should be helpful in identifying the learning needs of new caregivers. Also, testing the usefulness of the instructional media for improving caregiver knowledge and eliciting their opinions enhances the acceptability of the instruction media to be applied in nursing practice.