A UBC Okanagan campus School of Nursing research team is seeking to recruit families involved in caring for family members dying of cancer.

The study aims to develop an in-depth understanding of the experiences of bereaved family members caring for terminally-ill relatives with advanced cancer who lived in the home until death. The goal of this study is to help develop practice and policy recommendations to positively influence the quality of life of dying cancer patients and their families.

Challenges for family caregivers who wish to care for their family member in the home include:
-  being adequately informed to provide care and make decisions
-  developing and maintaining relationships with formal care providers
-  accessing and navigating existing resources and the health care system
-  educating themselves about pain and symptom management as well as signs of impending death

“In our previous research, we found that family caregivers who find they are unable to keep their promise to care for their terminally ill relative at home until death can experience significant despair that can lead to complicated bereavement,” says Carole Robinson, associate professor of nursing and principal investigator of the study called Supporting cancer patients who die at home: Experiences of bereaved family caregivers.

Gaining a better understanding of the experiences of family caregivers when a home death occurs is critical to providing insights and directions for more effective support of both patients and family members, says Robinson.

Researchers are looking for 24 family caregivers (12 men and 12 women; aged 19 and older) to participate in a one- to three-hour interview in person or by telephone. Family caregivers can include anyone who provided the majority of the emotional or physical care to the dying person. This includes immediate family, friends, and neighbors.
Interviews will be audio recorded and will take place at a time and place that is convenient for the family caregiver. Anyone who is interested in participating or learning more about the study may contact the study’s Research Coordinator Laura Bissell at 250-807-8174 or laura.bissell@ubc.ca.

Co-Investigators include: Gillian Fyles, research leader for palliative care at BC Cancer Agency (BCCA); Sandra Broughton, regional administrator, Sindi Ahluwalia Hawkins Centre for the Southern Interior, BCCA; Joan L. Bottorff, professor and director, Institute for Healthy Living and Chronic Disease Prevention, Faculty of Health and Social Development, UBC’s Okanagan campus.

This research is supported by a grant from the British Columbia Cancer Foundation.

News from © iNFOnews, 2013