Articles: caregivers.
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J Clin Monit Comput · Dec 2020
Multicenter StudyEffects of a standardized distraction on caregivers' perceptive performance with avatar-based and conventional patient monitoring: a multicenter comparative study.
Patient monitoring requires constant attention and may be particularly vulnerable to distractions, which frequently occur during perioperative work. In this study, we compared anesthesia providers' perceptive performance and perceived workload under distraction for conventional and avatar-based monitoring, a situation awareness-based technology that displays patient status as an animated patient model. In this prospective, multicenter study with a within-subject design, 38 participants evaluated scenarios of 3- and 10-s durations using conventional and avatar-based monitoring, under standardized distraction in the form of a simple calculation task. ⋯ Participants rated perceived workload lower under distraction with the avatar in the 3-s scenario: 65 (IQR 40-79) vs. 75 (IQR 51-88), p = 0.007, MoD: 9 (95% CI 3 to 15), and in the 10-s scenario: 68 (IQR 50-80) vs. 75 (IQR 65-86), p = 0.019, MoD: 10 (95% CI 2 to 18). Avatar-based monitoring improved anesthesia providers' perceptive performance under distraction and reduced perceived workload. This technology could help to improve caregivers' situation awareness, especially in high-workload situations.
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Int J Older People Nurs · Dec 2020
Investigating the psychometric properties of the Carers' Fall Concern instrument to measure carers' concern for older people at risk of falling at home: A cross-sectional study.
This study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Carers' Fall Concern Instrument (CFC-I) for measuring carers' concern for older people (care recipients) at risk of falling. ⋯ The newly developed multi-item CFC-I can be used to quantify the carers' level of fall concern and inform targeted interventions for carers when caring for older people who are at risk of falling.
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2020
ReviewDoes the carer support needs assessment tool cover the established support needs of carers of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease? A systematic literature search and narrative review.
Informal carers play a key supportive role for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, caring can have a considerable impact on health and wellbeing. Carers may have unidentified support needs that could be a target for intervention. Literature on the support needs of informal carers has not been fully synthesised, and our knowledge of the comprehensiveness of the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool for these individuals is limited. ⋯ Evidence suggests that carers of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease would benefit from identification and response to their support needs by healthcare professionals but to enable this, the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool requires an additional question. Future planned work will explore this with carers of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
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Background: An essential component of palliative care (PC) is providing psychological and existential support to the family caregivers. However, there is scant research on the existential journeys of family caregivers throughout the disease trajectory and beyond. Objective: This study aimed to obtain a deep understanding of the existential journeys of family caregivers from prognosis notification until after the death. Setting/Participants: A purposive sample of 22 caregivers of terminally ill family members who had died was recruited at a PC bereavement program in Canada and participated to qualitative phenomenological interviews. Data Collection: Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze the data derived from in-depth interviews. Results: The participants' existential journeys can be described by three dynamic dimensions: (1) from avoidance to integration of death, (2) from meaninglessness to meaningfulness, and (3) from transformation to transmission. The findings highlight the importance to family caregivers of having opportunities to share their experiences as a way to progress on the existential journey. Conclusions: PC should extend beyond the death of the loved one and expand to include existential aspects of the caregiving experience.
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Background: Many older adults with serious illness who depend on others for care have symptoms that are difficult to manage. Supporting caregivers in symptom assessment (SA) may reduce suffering. Objective: Pilot an SA-Toolkit for caregivers to assess older adults' symptoms at home. ⋯ Patients found the symptom illustrations easy to use (8.7 on 10-point scale), but the Faces Scale less so (7.3/10) because it provided "too many choices." Caregivers liked the SA-Toolkit because it was easy to use; nearly all (10/11, 90%) would recommend it to others. Conclusions: The SA-Toolkit resulted in decreased symptom burden among patients and higher caregiver self-efficacy in SA. The SA-Toolkit is acceptable and may help reduce suffering in frail, older patients.