2013 Volume 16 Issue 2 Pages 53-60
The purpose of this study is to clarify the caregivers’ including thoughts, feelings, and actions taken in response to the care, speech and behavior of visiting nurses in home terminal care.
This study used a qualitative descriptive design incorporating semi-structured interviews with 17 family caregivers. It revealed 53 sub-categories in 17 categories, as well as 4 characteristic core categories, as changes in family caregiver’s thoughts.
Specifically, the 4 core categories were: Easing of anxiety toward home care; increasing sense of unity as comrades who have overcome the obstacle together; awareness by family caregivers of a hesitant acceptance of new life; and making steps toward personal recovery and the start of a new life. Visits to bereaved families were found to be important opportunities to assist family caregivers in taking steps toward a new life. Providing precise nursing skills with comfort and building trust relationship between the nurse and the family caregiver are very important for visiting nurses.
