Psychosocial correlates of caregiving burden among psychiatric nursing

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Najma I Malik and Shahida Perveen

University of Sargodha, Pakistan

: J Nurs Patient Care

Abstract

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The current qualitative study aimed to assess the psychosocial correlates of the caregiving of the mentally ill among psychiatric nursing in Pakistan. Purposively selected 19 participants (10 family caregivers and 09 psychiatric nurses) were interviewed in the hospital settings. Results of the thematic analysis revealed that stress and physical fatigue were common among both family caregivers and psychiatric nurses, which paved detrimental impacts on their physical health. Both groups also reported stigma related experiences as family caregivers faced stigma from the public particularly neighbors, whereas other health workers stigmatized the work of psychiatric nurses. Both groups also reported that their caregiving burden was enhanced due to multiple responsibilities conflicts and absence of social activities whereas family caregivers additionally reported that the lack of financial resources as a contributor to the caregiving burden and all these factors consequently paved detrimental impacts on the provision of care to mentally ill, quality of life and physical health of caregivers. The study also found that caregivers’ attributes such as self-perception and perceived multifaceted strain over time along with coping strategies also played a significant role in the consequent outcome of the caregiving burden. It was revealed that emotion-focused coping was more common in family members’ whereas, humor and avoidant based coping for dealing with stress and work-related stigma were more evident among nurses. The implications of these findings include the need for counseling services to help caregivers manage negative experiences and psychoeducation of caregivers on adaptive coping strategies as well as training strategies targeting the public and healthcare workers on measures to reduce the stigma associated with caring for persons with mental illnesses.

Biography

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Najma I Malik has her expertise in evaluation and passion for improving health and wellbeing through counselling services. Her services for first aid mental health during COVISD-19 were recognized on the national level and her contribution in uplift of mental and well-being of the general public and mental health practitioners through the energy management plan creates new pathways for improving healthcare.