| Abstrakt: |
Aim: To identify the needs of the family caregivers of a person with chronic wound; To define the nursing interventions required for each need of the family caregivers. Method: Qualitative, exploratory and descriptive study with 38 Portuguese registered nurses who were divided into groups of 3 or 4 elements to participate in a Focus Group during 2019. All ethical considerations were address prior the investigation beginning. Content analysis was performed using the WEBQDA Software. Results / Discussion: The main needs of the family caregivers identified in the Focus Group were: "knowledge", "wound impact", "care management", "quality of life", "overburden", "role recognition". Considering each need identified, several nursing interventions emerged in the Focus Group discussion and allowed the development of a global intervention plan. Based on our results, the main strategies to improve the "knowledge" of the family caregivers of a person with a chronic wound should be focus on "wound physiopathology", "wound evolution" and "activities organization". When we consider the preventing care aspects, the nursing interventions should aim to "instruct" and "train" the family caregivers about specific practices and preventive procedures. When the family caregivers are not prepared for the "wound impact" additional teaching strategies are necessary to ensure dressing activities without having direct contact with the wound bed and to develop some coping strategies. The balance between "care management" and family caregivers' personal life was identified as a major challenge. Considering this, nurses could play an important role in care management, helping the family caregivers prioritizing their care activities during the day and/or during the week in order to guarantee that they have time enough to their own activities. To preserve family caregivers' "quality of life" and avoid "overburden" it is important to identify a secondary (family or non-family) caregiver. Nonetheless to be an effective support for the main family caregiver and to ensure tasks delegated, this secondary caregiver also needs training and guidance. Finally, the "recognition of caregiving role" is very important to maintain the family caregivers motivate. Thus, the positive feedback about the family care giver performance could be an important strategy which will be reflected in the quality of care. Conclusion: This Focus Group identified several needs of the family caregivers of a person with chronic wound and propose a directed intervention plan based on the needs identified. This study highlights that nursing interventions are crucial to improve the family caregivers' "knowledge", minimize the "wound impact", improve "care management", avoid "overburden", increase the family caregivers' "quality of life" and to valorize the "caregivers' role". It is important to identify specific indicators to grow the visibility of nursing and family caregivers' care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
