Support Needs of Family Caregivers During Tracheostomy Transitions: A Mixed-Methods Study

To explore the support needs of family caregivers during the transition of tracheostomized patients from the respiratory intensive care unit (RICU) to the general ward or home and to provide evidence for nurse-led, family-centred transitional care.

This was a sequential explanatory mixed-methods study, beginning with a quantitative survey and followed by qualitative interviews.

In the quantitative phase, 128 family caregivers of tracheostomized patients completed the Family Needs in ICU Transition Scale within 24-48 h before transfer from the RICU to the general ward or home. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize overall needs, domain scores and item rankings. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 11 caregivers purposively selected from the highest-scoring 30% of the quantitative sample based on overall need scores. Interview data were analysed using Colaizzi's seven-step phenomenological method. The qualitative findings helped to further interpret the quantitative results.

Family caregivers reported a high level of support needs overall, with a mean item score of 4.10 ± 0.85. The highest scoring domains were caregiving skills (4.25 ± 0.80), information needs (4.18 ± 0.84) and communication with healthcare providers (4.15 ± 0.81). Among this high-need subgroup, five themes emerged from the interviews: the need for timely and detailed information before and during transfer, the need for professional guidance on post-transfer care skills, the expectation of ongoing communication and information transparency, the request for caregiver educational materials and the desire for emotional support and encouragement.

Patients and the public were not involved in the design, conduct, reporting or dissemination of this research.