Aims: Identify the level of burden among caregivers of patients undergoing hemodialysis. Background: Patients with hemodialysis for a longer period of time having an extended as well as most painful lifespan. The relatives of such patients are also undergone with the distress and unpleasant events in their life. When comparing with dialysis patient’s caregivers are most affected in their dialysis process. It may be due to financial instability or may be due to distress.1 Method: A Descriptive study design was adopted in order to assess the level of burden among 93 caregivers of hemodialysis patients in selected hospitals at Mangaluru. Non-Probability Purposive Sampling Technique were used. Pilot study was conducted to find out the feasibility of the study. The tools used were demographic proforma and Zarit burden interview (standardized). Data collected from the subjects were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The study findings revealed that 48.4% caregivers have mild to moderate burden. 26.9% have moderate to severe burden. 5.4% have no burden and 19.4% have severe burden. Caregiver mean burden is 42.21 and standard deviation is 14.3.There was an association between caregiver burden and selected demographic variables such as Care giver age, caregiver gender, availability of financial support, present illness of the caregiver and duration of illness of patient which is significant at p< 0.05. Conclusion: Research findings revealed that most of the caregivers of hemodialysis patients were having mild to moderate burden. Implications for nursing: Implications of this study have a great influence regarding the provision of comprehensive and holistic care not only to patients but also to the caregivers of the patients and the nurse act as a mediator for the care associated with the outcome.
Ms. Christy Varghese2 Mrs. Indumathi*1 (Wed,) studied this question.