2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Process of a Caregiver Creating a New Life with an Elderly Person Soon After Hospital Discharge: Development of a Theory on the Life Experiences of Caregiving Using Qualitative Analysis
| Project/Area Number |
17592327
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Community health/Gerontological nurisng
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| Research Institution | Okayama University (2007)
St. Luke's College of Nursing (2005-2006) |
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Principal Investigator |
NAGAE Hiroko Okayama University, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Professor (10265770)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2005 – 2007
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| Keywords | a family caregiver / a elderly care / grounded theory / the transition period from hospital to home / hospital discharge / 生活感覚 |
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| Research Abstract |
Support for a family caregiver who cares for a patient is essential to promoting the patient's care at home. In particular, during in the transition period from hospital to home care, that a family caregiver experiences the most difficulties.
The purpose of this study was to describe and construct a theory from the perspective of family caregivers on how the caregivers create new lives with patients after hospital discharge based on their daily lives, thoughts and activities. It was a qualitative study that used grounded theory to guide data collection and analysis. A “family caregiver" was defined as a “family member who lives with the patient and who for the first time is the principal person giving primary care for the first time to a patient 65 years or older returning to home after discharge from a medical institution such as a hospital."
Results: Twenty-two family caregivers who had their patient at home less than one year after hospital discharge participated in this study. The results indicated that the process by which family caregivers realized that a life with the patient is one in which the caregiver makes caregiving a part of his/her life. Being find one's life and patient's life" emerged as the core category.
A life for a caregiver was one in which living with the patient had to become ordinary. Therefore, by finding the self who existed for no one else but oneself, family caregivers were thought to have realized their own lives.
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