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

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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 co** with the disease requiring neurological palliative care, two main themes were identified as emotion-focused co** and problem-focused co**. 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.

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Data Availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Gümüşhane University Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Committee. Thanks for the support of the participating caregivers. The study was carried out under the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. This study was supported by the Gumuşhane University Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Committee. We would like to thank caregivers for their support.

Funding

The study did not receive any financial support or relationships that may pose potential conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Heallth Sciences, Gümüşhane University, Gümüşhane, Turkey

    Nilgün Ulutaşdemİr

  2. Gazıantep Unıversıty, Medıcal Faculty Department of Neurology, Gaziantep, Turkey

    Halil Ay

  3. Sanlıurfa Traınıng And Research Hospıtal, Department of Neurology, Şanlıurfa, Turkey

    Adalet Göçmen

  4. Department of Nursing, Gümüşhane University Faculty of Health Sciences, Gümüşhane, Turkey

    Sevda Uzun & Nurşen Kulakaç

Authors
  1. Nilgün Ulutaşdemİr
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  2. Halil Ay
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  3. Adalet Göçmen
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  4. Sevda Uzun
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  5. Nurşen Kulakaç
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Contributions

The authors share the responsibility for the manuscript. Conception and design: NU, HA, SU, NK; data collection: HA, AG; analysis and interpretation: SU,NK,HA,NU, and manuscript writing: SU,HA,NK,NU,AG.

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Correspondence to Sevda Uzun.

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Ulutaşdemİr, N., Ay, H., Göçmen, A. et al. Needs of caregivers of patients with palliative neurological problems: a qualitative study. Curr Psychol 42, 8471–8477 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03800-w

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