Providing hospice home care to the terminally ill elderly people with cancer in Taiwan: family experiences and needs.
We explored caregivers' experiences and needs when providing hospice home care to their terminally ill elderly patients with cancer in Taiwan for 1 year. A total of 44 caregivers were interviewed using a semistructured interview once monthly during hospice home care visits until the patients' deaths. Content analysis of the interviews revealed 5 themes, hoping for a cure, experiencing fluctuating emotions, accepting the patient's dying, regarding the patient's death as a good death, and needing emotional support and information. Caregivers in hospice home care who experienced difficulties tended to seek emotional support and information throughout the entire caregiving process. With a greater understanding of caregivers' experiences and needs, nurses can alleviate caregivers' negative emotional reactions by actively attending to their needs during this process.
Department of Nursing, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC Department of Nursing, Tzu Chi College of Technology, Hualien, Taiwan, ROC.
Hsin-Tzu Sophie
HT
Lee
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
Kath M
KM
Melia
Graduate Institute of Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC Department of Family Medicine, College of Medicine & Hospital, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
Chien-An
CA
Yao
Department of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC Palliative Care Unit of National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
Chun-Ju
CJ
Lin
Department of Family Medicine, College of Medicine & Hospital, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC Department of Community Health School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Tai-Yuan
TY
Chiu
Department of Nursing, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC 2011e3188@gmail.com.
Wen-Yu
WY
Hu
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001293:Attitude to Death; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D065026:Hope; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D013624:Taiwan; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000523:psychology*
caregiver; experience; hospice home care; need; process