The Experience of Adults' Family Caregivers Using Home Care Services: A Scoping Review

To review the experiences of family caregivers using home care services, the perception of home care services and the positive and negative effects on family caregivers.

A scoping review of the literature was undertaken using JBI guidance.

Databases were searched in November 2023, including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane Library and CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure).

Eligible articles included peer-reviewed literature describing experience using home care services. Reviewers screened titles and abstracts of located sources, and to screen full-text articles. A table was used to extract data and synthesise results.

We found that 22 articles met the inclusion criteria, most of which were published since 2010 and this study found inconsistent findings across studies of the impact of home care services on care burden. In addition, family caregivers still have negative experiences in the process of use, such as the difficulty in obtaining service information, believing that the service duration and content cannot meet their needs, and the lack of continuity of care is the most involved negative experience.

Current home care services cannot fully meet the needs of family caregivers. Family caregivers have different expectations of policies, institutions and nursing staff. Future home care service practices should fully consider the unmet needs of caregivers and provide them with higher-quality nursing services.

This study provides new evidence that there are still unmet needs for family caregivers in the use of home care services. Policymakers can prioritise funding for mixed research and longitudinal research, with the primary aim of understanding the dynamic changes in the needs of family caregivers in home care services to better provide more comprehensive information to health service providers.

No patient or public contribution.