OBJECTIVE : The purpose of this study was to clarify the current level of study and future research theme, investigating many articles about care burden-related factors in primary family caregivers who support patients with Parkinson’s disease.

METHODS : I conducted a systematic literature review of many studies published between 1983 and 2012 that reported statistical associations between some stressors and care burden in primary family caregivers who support Parkinson’s disease patients, using the database (Pub Med).

RESULTS : Among 418 articles, 11 articles met the selection criteria. Care burden-related factors were classified into six ; Patient’s basic attributes, conditions of the disease, symptoms and impairment, caregiver’s basic attributes, caregiver’s psychosomatic functioning and socio-environmental factors. t-test, Mann-Whitney test, correlation and regression analysis were used to examine these factors.

CONCLUSIONS : Further study is suggested to confirm the causal relationship between care burden in primary family caregivers who support patients with Parkinson’s disease and family functioning and socialsupport, using structural equation modeling.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the nature of family stress in families coping with gastrostomy in home care. We conducted a survey of 183 family caregivers who used visiting nursing with gastrostomy. We developed the questionnaires based on the double ABCX Mode, including the caregiver burden, troubles related to gastrostomy, utilized external care services, and a visual analog scale (VAS) in the positive cognition of gastrostomy. The questionnaires were answered anonymously by the self-administered mailing method from May to July, 2011.

119 quesionnaires were collected and we analyzed answers from 91 family caregivers with elderly of care level 3 or higher and who fully completed the questionnaires. The mean age of the elderly was 78.9 ±10.1 (SD) years and that of family caregivers was 64.0 ± 11.4(SD) years. The number of troubles related to the gastrostomy was significantly higher in family caregivers 70 years or older (P ＜ .05). The family burden was significantly greater in family caregivers 70 years or older (P ＜ .05), and there was a negative correlation (r ＝ - 0.385)between caregiver burden and positive cognition of gastrostomy.

One of the factors which helped reduce caregiver burden was positive cognition of gastrostomy. It was suggested that for family caregivers of 70 years or older, it is important to prevent any trouble related to gastrostomy and to promote appropriate use of home care service.

With the aim of understanding the characteristics of the professional identity of visiting nurses and clarifying the relationship of these characteristics with individual traits, we conducted a questionnaire survey by mail of visiting nurses working in visiting nurse stations in all parts of Japan, and analyzed and investigated the results.

The professional identity of visiting nurses consisted of four factors: “Aspiration to contribute to society,” “Pride in being needed as a visiting nurse,” “Establishment of one’s own views on visiting nursing,” and “Confidence toward visiting nurse selection.” In the relationship between professional identity and individual traits, significant differences were seen in the person who was married, had children, had experience of being away from the profession, had worked as permanent employee and reached the position of a manager. The professional identity of visiting nurses grew with age and number of years’ experience, and was significantly higher after 10 or more years. Considering that the mean number of years working as a visiting nurse is about 4.0 years, it may be that many nurses leave the profession before their professional identity as a visiting nurse is fully developed. This suggests the importance of the development of a professional identity of support and education to help nurses get through the period of 0–4 years after making the switch to being a visiting nurse.

This study aimed to elucidate caregiving provided to elderly parents who were relocated away from their homes so that they could be near female relatives who were their primary caregivers. Semi-structured interviews with 10 female primary caregivers were analyzed using qualitative analysis procedures. The results indicated that female primar y caregivers believed that “deciding to relocate their parents for providing caregiving was the best solution for everyone involved” and that they assumed “a central role in preparations for their parent’s relocation by organizing and preparing to move their parent’s personal belongings”. In addition, the study revealed the problems experienced by female primary caregivers with regard to providing caregiving to their parents both before and after relocation, including “concern regarding their parent’s health and lifestyle after relocation”, and “difficulties in coming to terms with the effects of the relocation on the parent–child relationship and their respective lifestyles”. It was further revealed that female primary caregivers felt that “the experience of providing caregiving helped them grow personally”, which then motivated them to continue providing caregiving.

In a previous study, we created “An anticipatory grief scale for family caregivers of individuals approaching the end-of-life stage at home” and investigated its reliability and validity.

The objective of the present study was to investigate the usefulness of the above scale by applying it to actual cases. Specifically, the usefulness of the scale was defined as ① interpretation of the validity of scale scores, ② usability of the scale, and ③ application of the scores obtained using the scale for visiting nursing, and the scale was then applied to a total of seven cases.

The results confirmed that the validity of scale scores was comparable to clinical assessment by experienced nurses. Regarding usability, we found that the scale could be used without time constraints or psychological burden in all seven subjects. In addition, the use of the scale in visiting nursing enabled nurses to recognize anticipatory grief at an early stage and thereby facilitated their nursing support to families. The present scale was therefore considered useful.