College of Nursing, Chonnam National University, Chonnam Research Institute of Nursing Science
Abstract
Purpose: Family-caregivers of stroke patients usually go through hardship and life style changes during the protracted course of a family member's rehabilitation. There is need for programs to educate family-caregivers to better manage the medical crisis. In this study an evaluation was done of the degrees of burden and well-being experienced by primary family-caregivers following video-guided education (VGE) on rehabilitation and family lifestyle changes. Method: Fifty-eight primary family-caregivers of stroke patients on a neurological ward were divided into VGE (29) and control (29) groups. VGE was started within 7 days of patient admission. Interventions included VGE, counseling, and demonstration - re-demonstration. The control group received standard education but not VGE. Data were analyzed using Chi-square test, t-test, ANCOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficients with the SAS program. Results: The VGE group had a significantly lower score for total burden (F=7.19, p=.010) and for sub-scale of time-dependent burden (F=8.44, p=.005) than the control group. There was a negative correlation between primary family-caregiver burden and well-being (r=-.7151, p<.001). Conclusion: Results suggest that the rehabilitation program using VGE was an effective nursing intervention to reduce the burden of primary family-caregivers of stroke patients.