The effect of enhancing caregiver's competence on the outcomes of a discharge planning program for stroke elderly patients:a pilot study

• Main Author: 王曉萍
• Other Authors: 徐亞瑛
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/81232968270954349954

碩士 === 長庚大學 === 護理學研究所 === 89 === Abstract The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of a discharge planning program which focused on enhancing the caregiver’s competence. The family caregiver’s competence, satisfaction at 3 days before discharge and 2 weeks after discharge and the length of hospital stay were examined. The study enrolled 50 elderly stroke patients from 4 neurologic wards of a medical center located at northern Taiwan. After randomization, 24 patients were included in experimental group and 26 patients in control group. The patients in control group received regular treatments and routine discharge planning. The patients in experimental group received the discharge planning of enhancing caregiver’s competence in addition to the routine treatments and discharge planning. The discharge planning of enhancing caregiver’ competence included three parts : The first part included the needs assessment of caregiver, health education and referral services during in the hospital period. After patient was admitted and screened, the study nurse assessed the caregiver’s needs and gave health educations or made referrals according to the reported need. The second part included consultations and technical instructions before discharge. The study nurse offered consultations and technical instructions before patient’s discharge. The last part included follow-ups after the patient was discharged. The study nurse visited patient’s home one week after discharge to evaluation the caring condition and residential environment. Further health educations and instructions of caregiving would be given if necessary. The data were coded and analyzed by using SPSS for Windows 9.0. The results showed that the competence of caregiver improved after discharge in both groups. However, only study group achieved statistic difference comparing the test scores of caregiver’s competence before and after the discharge planning. The caregiver’s discharge needs satisfaction at 3 days after discharge was statistically higher in experimental group than in control group (2.97 vs 2.01). The caregiver’s satisfaction at 2 weeks post discharge was also statistically higher in experimental group than in control group (3.06 vs 2.37). However, The length of hospital stay was not statistically different in both groups. Our study showed that the discharge planning of enhancing caregiver’s competence could improve post-discharge care in elderly stroke patients. The results may offer a reference for developing effective discharge planning program.