| Learning Objective #1: Analyze the impact of home health care nursing interventions provided to family caregivers of home health clients | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Discuss the importance of nurses assessing and intervening with family caregivers |
Objective: To determine if caregiver burden, stress, and health could be improved by home health care (HHC) nursing interventions focused on the caregiver.
Design: Quasi-experimental: HHC nurses, randomly placed in the intervention or control group, enrolled family caregivers from their caseloads.
Population, Sample, Setting: Participants (n = 43) were primary, unpaid family caregivers of patients receiving services from a nonprofit hospital-based HHC agency.
Concept or Variables Studied Together: Outcome variables were caregiver burden, stress, and health. Mediating variables included caregiver demographic, hours per day spent caregiving, and the patient’s activity of daily living (ADL) score.
Methods: The Burden Interview, ADL Instrument, and Family Caregiver Assessment Tool were completed during a baseline home visit and one month later. Caregivers in the intervention group received an additional interim home visit to identify nursing diagnoses and expected outcomes for the caregiver. The nurses provided standardized nursing interventions during that home visit and two subsequent telephone visits.
Findings: Univariate analysis, when adjusted for pretest values, revealed a significant decrease in caregiver stress in the intervention group (X = 2.238) as compared to the control group (X = 2.774) (F = 4.481, p = .041). Caregiver health was higher and approached significance in the intervention group (X = 2.771) as compared to the control group (X = 2.526) (F = 3.010, p =. 090). A significant difference was not observed in caregiver burden scores. Descriptive and multivariate findings will be presented.
Conclusions: HHC nursing interventions were effective in improving caregiver’s perceived health and stress in this sample.
Implications: Further studies should be done using a larger random sample, diverse caregiver populations, and different settings. Outcomes would provide information for promotion of caregiver health. Cost analysis would inform health care policy regarding the role of nursing in caregiver assessment and intervention.
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