Needs of caregivers of patients with palliative neurological problems: a qualitative study

Abstract

Objective: This article aimed to investigate the needs of caregivers of patients with palliative neurological problems and contribute to the solution proposals. Material-method: Phenomenological research design, a qualitative research design, was used in the study. The article was conducted with 16 relatives of patients with palliative neurological problems. The interviews were conducted using face-to-face in-depth semi-structured interview form. Colaizzi’s phenomenological analysis method used for the analyse. Results: In the analysis of the data, three categories, eight main themes, and seventeen sub-themes emerged. As a result of the interviews with the participants, the category of the effect of neurological palliative disease on the quality of life of individuals was gathered under three main themes, namely mental, physical, and social effects, and in the process of coping with the disease requiring neurological palliative care, two main themes were identified as emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping. Conclusion: It was concluded in our study that having a patient in palliative care has psychological, social, and physical effects on the relatives of the patients. The burden of caregiving mostly affects the relatives of patients negatively. Relatives of patients mostly need time for themselves, moral support, and companion support. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.