Background
The health question that I research is; what is the impotence of caregiver? Cancer Caregivers plays a vital role in supporting dying cancer patients. Caregivers help the patients to remain intact when they are sick. When caregivers provide their services compassionately, they improve health and improve patient satisfaction amongst the patients that have lost hope. Kenneth Schwartz was a health care-lawyer committed on the business side of health. He was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he happened to experience another role in the healthcare, being a patient. Schwartz battled physically and emotionally with cancer. However, he lost the battle with cancer just a year after being diagnosed. When treated Schwartz felt the impotence of caregivers since the act of kindness bestowed upon him made him feel like a human being. Schwartz lost the battle with cancer, but the care he was accorded kept him hopeful and optimistic until he succumbed to cancer. Schwartz depicts how caregivers can be important to people who have cancer. Despite being the crucial part of nursing terminally ill patients, the caregivers experience many challenges, and the necessary intervention should be undertaken to protect the caregivers since their welfare is equally important as any other employee or volunteer. Biostatistics is important to determine the main challenges that caregivers face when they are at the service of the sick patients. As for Schwartz’s case, the caregivers should provide information on the challenges they faced so that necessary improvement is done.
Article Selection.
My main article is Family caregiver burden: results of a longitudinal study of breast cancer patients and their principal caregivers whereas my related article was Spouse cancer caregivers’ burden and distress at an entry to home hospice: The role of relationship quality . I chose these articles because they tend to research and provide results on the impact cancer has had to the family caregiver for cancer like spouses, brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles. The two articles give detailed information regarding biostatics about the cancer patients, the percentages of people who are caregivers and the challenges that caregivers have faced when offering their challenges.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Family caregiver burden: results of a longitudinal study of breast cancer patients and their principal caregivers
This article depicts the vital role played by family caregivers in supporting dying cancer patients is well recognized, but the burden and economic impact on caregivers are poorly understood. We prospectively examined the psychosocial, occupational and economic impact of caring for a person with a terminal illness. The article is important to me as a psychiatrist because it helps me understand what caregivers are going through. The article provides the statistics on the effects that caregivers face. For instance, caregivers are affected psychologically because he has to see the pain that the patient undergoes in their daily life ( Grunfeld et al 2014) .
Mary Elizabeth Anania Edwards was an attorney and author; she was the wife of John Edwards a U.S senator from North Carolina. She had breast cancer, and Edward recalled the challenges him and his family experienced when his wife was battling breast cancer. Edwards depicts that after the death of her wife’s his children had to undergo some counseling to help them recover from the ordeal of seeing their mother suffer for a long time. Moreover, Senator Edward explained the financial burden he was subjected to when his wife was seeking medication.
Spouse cancer caregivers’ burden and distress at an entry to home hospice: The role of relationship quality
This article is important because it describes relationship quality categories among end-of-life caregivers and tests the effects of relationship quality categories on caregiver burden and distress within a stress process model ( Reblin et al 2016) .
Katie Couric is one of the famous people who lost her husband to colon cancer. She attests that cancer did not only affected her family it caused her serious depressions because she saw the ordeal that her husband of 9 years was subjected to. Couric opened up that he took care of her husband and she could not bear to see him in pain. Also, Couric confesses that her husband’s treatment was costly to her and made her experience economic strain.
Findings
Main article findings
Phycological impact.
From the finding, it was evident that caregivers were anxious at the start of the terminal period as at the start of the palliative period (39% v. 35%, p = 0.18). Many of the caregivers were experienced a higher level of burden at the start of the terminal period compared to the start of the palliative period ( Grunfeld et al 2014) .
Occupation Impact
At the beginning of the palliative period, about one quarter (27%) of caregivers were retired while approximately a half of caregivers (56%) were in part time or full jobs. C aregivers missed work in the terminal period than in the palliative period (77% v. 53%, p = 0.04). Also, caregivers reported an increased inability to work regular hours and increased hours of work lost in the terminal period because of care provided ( Grunfeld et al 2014).
Related Article findings
Caregivers were 92% White and 35% male. Caregivers were, on average, 65 years old ( SD = 10.74), and patients were, on average, 68 years ( SD = 11.27). Couples were married, or core is siding a mean of 35.9 years ( SD = 17.76). Most caregivers were relatively well educated (over 75% had at least some college) but had a wide range of income. Caregivers reported high levels of anxiety and depression. The mean anxiety score was 9.89 ( SD = 2.41), and most caregivers fell between the established cut off for anxiety in the general population (HADS score of 8) and the score defined as clinically anxious (HADS score of 11). The mean depression score was 5.49 ( SD = 2.55), which falls above the score suggestive of depression (GDS score of 5) ( Reblin et al 2016) .
Methods
Method of Collecting Data in the Main article
The main method used to collect data was questionnaire administered by an interviewer. Methods of collecting data in Related articles the author chose to go by this method because questioner can be carried out by the researcher or by any number of people with limited effect to its validity and reliability ( Grunfeld et al 2014).
Method of collecting data in the related article
The main method used to collect data was through questioners. The author chose to go by this method because questioner can be used to gather large number information from many people in a short span of time at a cheaper cost ( Reblin et al 2016).
In both articles, questioners were used to collecting data from the willing participants who are the caregivers. One advantage of using a questioner is the results of the questionnaires can usually be quickly and easily quantified by either a researcher or through the use of a software package. For instance, the prior power calculations were used to quantify the result obtained from the questioners. One major limitation of questioners is there is no way to gauge if the data or information is true.
Conclusion
The study epitomizes a different relationship quality measured using dimension in spouse caregivers and family caregivers at an entry to home hospice. The articles have depicted the effects of cancer on the caregivers who happens to be the close family embers of the patient. However, the articles have not provided a detailed way to solve the effects of cancer on caregivers. The best solution to help caregivers to overcome trauma is to be counseling them often before they handle a patient. Counseling caregivers will prepare them to psychologically, and they will be less traumatized.
References
Grunfeld, E., Coyle, D., Whelan, T., Clinch, J., Reyno, L., Earle, C. C., & . . . Glossop, R. (2004). Family caregiver burden: Results of a longitudinal study of breast cancer patients and their principal caregivers. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 170(12), 1795–1801. doi:10.1503/cmaj.1031205
http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ps yh&AN=2004-15356-002&site=eds-live&scope=site
Reblin, M., Donaldson, G., Ellington, L., Mooney, K., Caserta, M., & Lund, D. (2016). Spouse cancer caregivers’ burden and distress at entry to home hospice: The role of relationship quality. Journal Of Social And Personal Relationships, 33(5), 666-686. doi:10.1177/0265407515588220
http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://doi.org/10.1177/0265407515588220
