Home Care of Discharged Postoperative Neurosurgery Patients:Are the Caregivers Responsible?

Problem statement: Home based care of neurosurgery patients is a difficult task for caregivers in the family. These patients remain bed ridden for quite a long time even after operation. They may develop many complications. Caregivers face a lot of problem in looking after such patients. The majority of these problems can be minimized if caregivers are properly trained.

Purpose of study: To ascertain the problems faced by family caregivers in home care of discharged postoperative neurosurgery patients. To ascertain the quality of home care of discharged postoperative neurosurgery patients. To explore the opinion of family caregivers about their role in home based care.

Methods: This cross sectional interview based descriptive study was done in 2010 in Chandigarh. These patients were visited at their home. Modified caregiver strain index was used to assess stress on the caregivers. Quality of home care was assessed by a15 item questionnaire. Verbatim responses were recorded for the purpose of qualitative research. Results and Finding: Overall 58 patients and their caregivers were interviewed at home. Mean age of the patients was 38.9 years and, of caregivers was 39.1 years. Caregiver and patients were either related by blood (43.9%) or were spouses (45.6%). Condition of 74.1% patients improved after operation. A high strain was noticed in majority of the caregivers (63.2%). Quality of care at home as found to be good in half of the patients whereas average to poor in other half. Depression was reported in 31% of patients. Many (36.2%) patients and some (8.7%) of caregivers had to quit their job due to the disease. Conclusion and Recommendations: Caregivers of neurosurgical patients faced significant stress. Quality of life and quality of care of many patients was poor. There is a need of training of caregivers. A cadre of professional caregiver needs to be built.