The effects of a nurse education and support program for caregivers of patients with dementia in a memory clinic

• Main Authors: Jui-Fen Chen, 陳瑞芬
• Other Authors: Yu-Tzu Dai
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/24978271876547650044

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 護理學研究所 === 92 === The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a nurse education and support program for caregivers of patients with dementia in a memory clinic. The nurse education and support program was designed to help the caregivers of patients with dementia to correct their knowledge and attitude, reduce their stress and burden, and improve their quality of life. The randomized controlled design and single-blind were used in this study. The subjects were recruited from a neurological clinic at a medical center in Taipei and assigned randomly into a memory clinic group (experimental group, n=18) and a usual clinic group (control group, n=21). For three months, the memory clinic group participated in the nurse education and support program. Each member of the group received individualized health education and emotional support. A total of six occasions, which included three interviews following visits to the doctor, two follow-up telephone interview and a personal home visit by the nurse. Data collection was performed by an assistant by face to face interview with structured questionnaires: (1) Knowledge and Attitude scale (1991); (2) Zarit Burden Interview (1980); (3) The MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36, 1992). The data was recorded and analyzed with SPSS 10.0 for Windows. The study findings were as follows: 1.There was no significant effect on knowledge and attitude improvement between groups, but there was a positive trend that caregivers were able to realize the behavioral problems of patients with dementia are not caused on purpose. In the memory clinic group, caregivers were able to accept the concept that dementia is a disease and could better understand that by controlling the environment and daily schedule, patient disturbance or confusion can be decreased. In usual clinic group, caregivers had the misunderstanding that dementia is a rare disorder. 2.There was no significant effect on reducing caregiver’s burden between groups, but there were significant effects on increasing the caregiver’s burden that “be fear of the future of the patients with dementia”, “have the confidence to do more for the patients with dementia”, and “have the confidence to do better for the patients with dementia.” There was a trend towards down that “caregivers’ health were affected after caring the patients with dementia” and “caregivers sacrificed their social life after caring the patients with dementia”. 3.There was a decreasing trend in the “Social Functioning” score between groups. Besides, “Role-Emotional” score was decreasing significantly in memory clinic group. ”Physical Functioning” score was decreasing in usual clinic group. The longitudinal effects of the nurse education and support program need to be further examined. The results could serve as a reference to related studied and interventions on the patients with dementia and their caregivers. (Key words: dementia, caregivers, memory clinic)