title: Being an Informal Caregiver of a Person with a Pressure Ulcer in the Azores Islands.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed at both understanding the experience of informal caregivers of people with pressure ulcers (PrUs), as well as perceiving the relevant aspects of the narratives emerging from the experience of those caregivers.
  
  
  METHODS
  A qualitative, exploratory, grounded-based theory data analysis was implemented. The authors used NVivo 9 software (QSR International Inc, Burlington, Massachusetts) on semistructured interviews.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study participants were 9 informal caregivers of people with PrUs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An individual's personal characteristics, the person he or she is caring for, and social pressure are typically the primary reasons to be a caregiver. In fact, PrUs require specific care associated with an impact on caregivers at different levels, including changes in everyday life, needs and feelings emerging from the care they provide, quality of life conditioned by their professional status, and burdens induced by physical and emotional demands. Oftentimes, family members and external entities--with emphasis on the nursing team--provide support to the caregiver. Caregivers show both satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the care provided, with the evolution of the PrU and with the support of external agents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The experience of informal caregivers of people with PrUs is based on 5 dimensions: (1) reasons to be caregivers, (2) care provided to the PrU, (3) impacts on the caregiver, (4) support to the caregiver, and (5) satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the caregiver.
authors.affiliation: Alexandre M. Rodrigues, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Saúde da Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal, and a Researcher at the Centre for Health Studies and Research of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. Carmen Ferré-Grau, PhD, is a professor and the Coordinator of the Doctoral Program in Nursing Science at the University of Roviri I Virgili, Tarragona, Spain. Pedro L. Ferreira, PhD, is an Associated Professor with Aggregation in Mathematical Economics and Econometric Models at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, and Director of the Centre for Health Studies and Research of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. The authors have disclosed that they have no financial relationships related to this article.
authors.forename: Alexandre M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ferré-Grau
authors.forename: Pedro L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Ferreira
mesh_terms: D001394:Azores; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology / Q000639:trends*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D003668:Pressure Ulcer / Q000451:nursing*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011788:Quality of Life; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires