TY - JOUR
T1 - Stress variances among informal hospice caregivers
AU - Wittenberg-Lyles, Elaine
AU - Demiris, George
AU - Parker Oliver, Debra
AU - Washington, Karla
AU - Burt, Stephanie
AU - Shaunfield, Sara
N1 - Funding Information:
We drew from a larger pilot randomized clinical trial designed as a noninferiority trial funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research. The goal of the larger project was to demonstrate the feasibility of delivering a problem-solving intervention called ADAPT (attitude, define, alternatives, predict, try) in a two-group intervention study for hospice caregivers (; ). The intervention is designed to help caregivers be effective in solving problems pertaining to the caregiving experience by (a) adopting a positive orientation to problem solving, (b) carefully identifying the facts associated with the problem, (c) exercising creativity in generating a list of alternative approaches to solving the problem, (d) predicting the consequences of each alternative and selecting the one most likely to be effective, and (e) implementing the selected alternative to solve the problem. In this study we explored digitally recorded discussions of the first step of the problem-solving intervention between hospice caregivers and interventionists in which caregivers were asked to identify and describe the most pressing problems or concerns they faced. The intervention visit was chosen as the site for data exploration because it allowed researchers to capture caregiver responses about any caregiving-related concerns. Data collection for this study was approved by the supporting university’s institutional review board.
PY - 2012/8
Y1 - 2012/8
N2 - Care interventions are not routinely provided for hospice caregivers, despite widespread documentation of the burden and toll of the caregiving experience. Assessing caregivers for team interventions (ACT) proposes that holistic patient and family care includes ongoing caregiver needs assessment of primary, secondary, and intrapsychic stressors. In this study, our goal was to describe the variance in stressors for caregivers to establish evidence for the ACT theoretical framework. We used secondary interview data from a randomized controlled trial to analyze hospice caregiver discussions about concerns. We found variances in stress types, suggesting that caregiver interventions should range from knowledge and skill building to cognitive-behavioral interventions that aid in coping. Family members who assume the role of primary caregiver for a dying loved one need to be routinely assessed by hospice providers for customized interventions.
AB - Care interventions are not routinely provided for hospice caregivers, despite widespread documentation of the burden and toll of the caregiving experience. Assessing caregivers for team interventions (ACT) proposes that holistic patient and family care includes ongoing caregiver needs assessment of primary, secondary, and intrapsychic stressors. In this study, our goal was to describe the variance in stressors for caregivers to establish evidence for the ACT theoretical framework. We used secondary interview data from a randomized controlled trial to analyze hospice caregiver discussions about concerns. We found variances in stress types, suggesting that caregiver interventions should range from knowledge and skill building to cognitive-behavioral interventions that aid in coping. Family members who assume the role of primary caregiver for a dying loved one need to be routinely assessed by hospice providers for customized interventions.
KW - Caregivers/caregiving
KW - Coping and adaptation
KW - End-of-life issues
KW - Illness and disease, life-threatening/terminal
KW - Psychosocial issues
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84863704243&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1049732312448543
DO - 10.1177/1049732312448543
M3 - Article
C2 - 22673093
AN - SCOPUS:84863704243
SN - 1049-7323
VL - 22
SP - 1114
EP - 1125
JO - Qualitative Health Research
JF - Qualitative Health Research
IS - 8
ER -