Lack of continuity of rehabilitation care for stroke survivors : Iranian family caregivers' experience

• Background and Objective: Stroke is a common disabling disorder that requires the involvement of family caregivers to successfully encourage the patient's rehabilitation. This is especially true in Iran, where the family members commonly have the main responsibility of care of disabled persons. The aim of this study was to explore the Iranian family caregivers' experience of providing rehabilitation care at home. Method: A grounded theory approach and the main tenets of constant comparative method were used. Twelve participants were interviewed using semi-structured in-depth interviews. Findings: The core concept was identified as "lack of continuity of rehabilitation care". Seven main categories were identified. Three of them were related to the problems family caregivers faced, including inadequate knowledge and skills, inappropriate accessibility to rehabilitative services, and inadequate social insurance. Four categories were about the strategies that family caregivers used to deal with the major concerns; modifying home environment, managing coexisting medical conditions, improving nurses' roles and, relying on family unity. Conclusion: Family caregivers need continuity of rehabilitative care besides their family engagement, to enable access to care. They also need support from adequate social insurance and increased access to rehabilitation care. Undergoing rehabilitation at home gives people the advantage of practicing skills and developing compensatory strategies in the context of their own living environment by training and helping family caregivers and stroke survivors in terms of modifying home environment and managing coexisting medical conditions. Here, nurses can have an important role by helping the family caregivers with education and training.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

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