Experience of Family Care Givers Engaged in Medical Care at Home: Focus on Psychological Aspects

Abstract

I investigated the experiences, especially psychological aspects, of family care givers engaged in medical care at their homes. The subjects were 4 family care givers who had received service from home care nursing. All subjects were engaged in the care of their parents. I analyzed the texts of dialogues of individuals by a qualitative inductive study method. I demonstrated the content of their experiences and compared them to demonstrate the tendency of their experiences. I found 4 to 6 categories of experiences for each person. I also found that the family care givers tended to discuss 4 subjects, namely, the feeling that "the parents had changed," the feeling that "medical treatment isn't difficult," "the benefits" brought about be medical treatment, and the fear that "the parents would feel pain from medical treatment." The care givers felt deeper mental anguish from the feeling that the parents had changed than from learning medical treatment. Furthermore the fear that "the parents would feel pain from medical treatment" was related to support by nurses.