Telenursing in care education for caregivers of psoriasis patients: a protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder that imposes significant physical, psychological, and social burdens on patients and their family caregivers. Family caregivers play a crucial role in patient care, but often experience substantial caregiving burden and psychological distress. Telenursing, as an emerging approach in healthcare, offers an accessible and cost-effective method for providing education and support to caregivers. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of telenursing in care education for family caregivers of patients with psoriasis.

A single-site, open-label randomized clinical trial with two parallel groups (intervention and control) will be conducted at the dermatology clinic of Razi Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, between June 2025 and November 2025. Seventy family caregivers of patients with psoriasis who meet the inclusion criteria will be recruited and randomly assigned (38 per group) to either a telenursing-based care education program (intervention) or usual education (control). The intervention will last six weeks, including four weeks of structured online education via WhatsApp and Skyroom, followed by two weeks of follow-up. Primary outcomes (psychological well-being and caregiving burden) and the secondary outcome (caregiver self-efficacy) will be assessed at baseline and post-intervention using validated questionnaires. Statistical analyses will be conducted using SPSS software V.23, with a significance level of p < 0.05.

This trial will evaluate whether a structured telenursing program can improve psychological well-being and caregiver self-efficacy while reducing caregiving burden among family caregivers of patients with psoriasis. The findings may inform scalable nurse-led telehealth strategies to support caregivers in chronic dermatological conditions. Trial registration IRCT20240319061338N2, registered on 17 January 2025 in the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT) ( http://www.irct.ir/ ).