This study intends to provide basic data for arbitration of nursing family through recognizing the degree of burden, depression, and adaptation of family members taking care of chronic patients; and analyzing characteristic relationship between pat...
This study intends to provide basic data for arbitration of nursing family through recognizing the degree of burden, depression, and adaptation of family members taking care of chronic patients; and analyzing characteristic relationship between patients and their family members.
The subjects of this research were family members of patients registered in 1 teaching hospital, 2 general hospitals with 200 beds, 2 family nursing projects in Chuncheon. The research was carried out from March 25 till April 28 in 2001, and 165 data were collected and analyzed. The research tool was organized questionnaires. Credibility of the tool in the case of the degree of burden was Cronbach's alpha 0.7924; in the case of depression, Cronbach's alpha 0.9236; and in the case of adaptation, Cronbach's alpha 0.9068. Collected data were encoded and taken the statistics with computers using SPSS WIN; and were verified with real numbers, percentage, the arithmetic mean, standard deviation, t-test, F-test(ANOVA); and variables which showed meaningful difference like p<.05 were verified again with Duncan's Multiple Range(DMR); and correlation was analyzed with Pearson's Correlation Coefficient.
The results of this research were as follows:
1) The degree of burden of chronic patient's family members was high; the degree of objective burden(3.37) was higher than that of subjective burden(3.04); the degree of depression appeared medium (2.87), and that of the adaptation was high(3.36).
2) The degree of burden and that of depression showed statisti- cally meaningful correlation, i.e. the greater the burden was, the deeper the depression was(r=-.665, p=.000); whereas the degree of depression and that of adaptation showed converse correlation, i.e. the greater the burden was, the lower the degree of adaptation(r= -.294, p=.000).
3) The degree of depression and that of adaptation showed statistically meaningful converse correlation, i.e. the higher the degree of depression, the lower the degree of adaptation(r=-.327, p=.000).
4) As for the degree of burden, depression, and adaptation, as the subject was older, as his or her income was smaller, as his or her academic career was lower, in case the patient was at home rather than in a hospital, in case he or she was married, in case he or she had no job, in case the subject was a woman, the subject appeared to have greater burden, deeper depression, and showed lower degree of adaptation.
As a result, this research shows that family members of chronic patients undergo various burden concerned with general characteristics of both patients and their family members, and the burden and depression make lives of the family members unhappy. Consequently, in order to assist the family members to adapt themselves more easily, it is required to enhance social support, to encourage the family members, to improve perception of the family members about the patient, to promote health of the family members. Also nursing arbitration methods should be developed to recover relationship and functions of the family members.