Cronin Patricia, Hynes Geralyn, Breen Marianne, McCarron Mary, McCallion Philip, O'Sullivan Liam
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Health Soc Care Community. 2015 Jan;23(1):88-96. doi: 10.1111/hsc.12149. Epub 2014 Oct 13.
While the financial, physical and psycho-social burden for caregivers is recorded, less is known about the post-caring experience. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore the experiences and needs of Irish former family carers in the post-caring/care transitions period. Former family carers were defined as family members who provided physical and/or social care to a family member with an illness or disability in the home for at least 6 months prior to nursing home/hospice placement or death. A total of 40 family carers were recruited from members of or known to voluntary care groups/associations in Ireland. Fourteen participants took part in a focus group discussion and 26 participated in one-to-one, semi-structured interviews, all of which were undertaken in 2010. The focus group discussion focused on gaining a broad understanding of the participants' post-caring experiences and the emergent themes formed the basis for the development of a semi-structured interview guide. Data from the focus group were analysed inductively using Creswell's qualitative analysis framework, while template analysis was the method of analysis for the 26 individual interviews. For the participants in this study, post-caring was a transition that comprised three, interrelated, non-linear, iterative themes that were represented as 'loss of the caring world', 'living in loss' and 'moving on' and symbolised as being 'between worlds'. Transition was a complex interplay of emotions overlaid with economic and social concerns that had implications for their sense of health and well-being. This exploratory study begins to address the dearth of data on post-caring/care experiences, but further research is needed to inform support interventions to enable former family carers to 'move on'.
虽然已记录了照顾者所承担的经济、身体和心理社会负担，但对于照顾结束后的经历却知之甚少。这项定性描述性研究的目的是探索爱尔兰前家庭照顾者在照顾结束/照顾过渡阶段的经历和需求。前家庭照顾者被定义为在家庭成员入住养老院/临终关怀机构或去世前至少6个月，在家中为患有疾病或残疾的家庭成员提供身体和/或社会照顾的家庭成员。总共从爱尔兰志愿护理团体/协会的成员或相关人员中招募了40名家庭照顾者。14名参与者参加了焦点小组讨论，26名参与者参加了一对一的半结构化访谈，所有这些访谈均在2010年进行。焦点小组讨论的重点是广泛了解参与者照顾结束后的经历，而新出现的主题构成了制定半结构化访谈指南的基础。焦点小组的数据使用克雷斯韦尔的定性分析框架进行归纳分析，而模板分析则是对26次个人访谈的分析方法。对于本研究的参与者来说，照顾结束是一个过渡阶段；该阶段包含三个相互关联、非线性、反复出现的主题，分别为“失去照顾的世界”“生活在失去之中”和“继续前行”，并被象征为“处于两个世界之间”。过渡是情感与经济和社会担忧的复杂相互作用，这对他们的健康和幸福感产生了影响。这项探索性研究开始填补关于照顾结束/照顾经历的数据空白，但还需要进一步的研究来为支持干预措施提供信息，以使前家庭照顾者能够“继续前行”。
