Stroke caregivers share ABCs of caring.
New stroke caregivers (N = 36) participated in a Web-based intervention that provided support and education and included exchanging e-mail messages in a discussion group. A male spousal caregiver posted a poem in his final message at the end of 1 year of participation in this discussion group. He used each letter of the alphabet to choose a word that represented a theme for what he had discovered while caring for his wife. A secondary analysis project examined narrative data from all caregivers' e-mails to see whether support existed for the word themes in the ABCs poem. 2,148 e-mails were read and examined using content analysis to get a sense of the meaning of the content, and then key words were identified that matched each of the poem's word themes. Other caregivers' e-mail examples verified all 26 word themes of the ABCs poem. Nurses can use these themes when providing education and support interventions to stroke caregivers new to their new role.
Pierce
Linda L
LL
University of Toledo College of Nursing, Toledo, OH, USA. l.pierce@utoledo.edu
Steiner
Victoria
V
Smelser
Juli
J
D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D015397:Program Evaluation; D019145:Rehabilitation Nursing; D012657:Self-Help Groups; D020521:Stroke / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation