Family caregivers' perceptions and challenges in the care of pressure injuries in a daily life: a qualitative field study

Abstract Objectives: This study aimed to understand existing discrepancies between primary pressure injury care in daily practice and care as recommended by medical professionals (identification, prevention, and treatment), psychological perceptions of family caregivers' participation in pressure injury care practice, and the difficulties faced by family caregivers in performing pressure injury care. Therefore, key coping strategies for caregivers in the practice of identifying, preventing, and cooperating with the treatment of pressure injuries were proposed. Methods: From June to December 2023, 17 older patients with pressure injuries were observed and 17 family caregivers were interviewed using a field study design that included semi-participatory observation and in-depth interviews. Field notes were analysed using a qualitative three-level coding method. Results: Eight themes were extracted after analysing the on-site observation records and interviews. These included four topics on care content (food preparation and feeding support, maintaining hygiene, postural change and use of supports, use of medication, and dressing), two perception topics (responsible care and compensatory companion, grief, and helplessness), and two challengetopics (identifying and alerting barriers to pressure injury and shortage of professional care and counselling resources). Conclusion: Family caregivers still provide inappropriate pressure injury care, for example, in terms of frequency of body position changes and ways to keep wounds clean and hygienic. The education of family caregivers of disabled older adults should include the identification of pressure injuries and related early warning signs and introduce teaching cases when appropriate. To facilitate access to professional care and counselling resources for pressure injuries, the community can be united to carry out systematic science popularisation by using various effective media such as new media and video channels.