Abstract
The purpose of this study was to clarify inductively-derived concepts comprising grief care provided by visiting nurses; nurses' perspectives of family caregivers' outcomes and nurses' outcomes. Data was generated from a mail survey using an original researcher developed self-administered questionnaire to visiting nurses employed at the visiting nurse stations throughout Japan, which were established by the Long-term Care Insurance Law.
Valid responses included 1442 (76.1%) nurses. Factor analysis yielded three caregiving scales: grief care from beginning of home care to the terminal period (3 factors, 16 items) [α=0.93]; grief care at deathbed (1 factors 5 items) [α=0.66] and grief care after the patient's death (3 factors, 21 items) [α=0.93]. There were two outcome scales: family caregivers' outcomes (4 factors, 19 items) [α=0.81] and nurses' outcomes (4 factors, 13 items) [α=0.73].
Grief care provided by nurses was divided into three periods. The continual implementation of grief care from beginning of home care to the terminal period, at deathbed, and after the patient's death was shown to mutually enhance care implementation.
