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Assessment of Dependence in Activities of Daily Living Among Older Patients in an Acute Care Unit
Published on: September 30, 2020
The lived experience of family caregivers caring for patients dependent on life-sustaining technologies
Waraporn Kongsuwan1, Pongpaka Borvornluck2, Rozzano C Locsin3,4
1Adult and Elderly Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla, 90112, Thailand.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to describe the meaning of the lived experience of family caregivers caring for their loved ones who were dependent upon life-sustaining technologies while in the hospital.
Methods:
This study followed van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological approach to generate and analyze data to describe the experience of ten family caregivers who met the following inclusion criteria: a family member who participated actively in caring for the loved one who was dependent upon technologies for human care. Data were collected using individual in-depth interviews. The interview transcriptions were analyzed using van Manen's phenomenological approach, while Lincoln and Guba's criteria were used to establish trustworthiness of the study.
Findings:
Four thematic categories structured the meaning of the experience: Being an invisible person; supporting patients' wholeness; struggling to trust technologies for human care; and living in uncertainty. These thematic categories were reflective of Van Manen's four lived worlds of body, relation, space, and time.
Conclusion:
Understanding the experience of family caregivers challenges nurses to express their technological competencies in caring more fully in their human care. Locsin's theory of Technological Competency as Caring in Nursing was used to explain and describe the meaning of the experiences of family caregivers caring for patients who were dependent upon technologies for human care, and foster nursing practice as caring in nursing.
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