"Healthy Skin" Program for Family Caregivers of People With Chronic Disease

Saturday, 21 April 2018

Daniela Diaz Agudelo, SN
Department of Nursing, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia

At present, according to the World Health Organization, ECNTs continue to increase worldwide and are the leading cause of death and premature disability in the vast majority of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, representing more than 3, 9 million deaths annually, of the total deaths in the entire region. It is therefore one of the main challenges to be addressed in the health sector for development in the 21st century (WHO, 2015).


The experience of a chronic illness situation for families is related to socioeconomic, emotional and spiritual factors that together have a great impact on the lives of the people involved (Ortiz et al., 2006). This is the reason why an increase in the volume of people offering care, formal or informal. Stober (1998) points out that in the last two decades there has been a growth in the number of families who decide to take on the responsibility of caring for their relatives with chronic diseases. Taking this task of being a caregiver means that you have to change your lifestyle in social and family life. The care provided will require a lot of time, due to complications or exacerbations typical of the underlying pathology. Some of these complications are due to ignorance of interventions to prevent them from their caregivers (Martín, 2016).


The appearance of pressure ulcers is considered one of the complications commonly presented by people with chronic diseases. In addition to this, there is inexperience or lack of knowledge of Family Caregivers, which favors the appearance of these ulcers (Carbajal, 2015). These lesions represent a serious health problem, so a key element in the prevention of pressure ulcers includes two health managers: the nursing professional and family caregivers (López and Martínez, 2011).


The objective of this work will be to design and implement a "Healthy Skin" program aimed at caregivers that contributes to the knowledge of the instrumental support in the skin care, to promote a better care of the chronic patients in their home, Of the ulcers By pressure.


The methodology to be used for the elaboration of the program is participatory, constituted by 3 phases: Phases 1 and 2 are developed in the period from August to September of 2017 and phase 3 will be developed in the period of October to November of 2017, in A Hospitalization service in the city of Barranquilla / Colombia.

Phase I will identify the needs expressed by family caregivers based on an evaluation format.

In Phase II the design of the "Healthy Skin" program will be carried out, supported by the evaluation of knowledge and skills previously addressed to family caregivers.

Phase III will implement the "Healthy Skin" education program for the family caregiver group and evaluate satisfaction to identify concerns or difficulties that have arisen in program management and then be subject to the necessary changes and adjustments.


The statistical analysis will be carried out using the statistical package SPSS, version 22. It is planned to perform the analysis in two phases: a descriptive analysis phase and an inferential analysis phase.


Family caregivers are expected to be aware of all actions that can prevent the onset of pressure ulcers while maintaining the integrity of the skin of people with chronic illnesses. In addition, reduce the economic costs in the inputs and materials to treat them.

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