The experience of family caregivers in treatment of COVID-19 patients: a qualitative study

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 has drastic effects on both patients and their caregivers, so that they experience great problems. Hence, the present study was performed with the aim of explaining the home care experiences of patients with COVID-19. Material and methods: This qualitative study was performed with the conventional content analysis approach and 16 primary caregivers of patients with COVID-19 who had undergone the acute phase of the disease were selected by the purposive sampling method. This study was conducted from 1 July 2020 to 1 March 2021. Data collection was performed by unstructured interviews, and data analysis was performed based on five steps of Graneheim and Lundman. Results: From data analysis, 383 initial codes were extracted, which were obtained by continuous comparison and integration of subcategories of 6 main categories, i.e. fear, sincere care, quarantine atmosphere, paradoxical cyberspace, risk taking and positive care achievements. Conclusions: Although home care was associated with problems and difficulties for caregivers, it ultimately brought caregivers a sense of inner satisfaction with this type of care and brought them positive results. Therefore, health professionals in such situations can provide the necessary training to reduce the difficulties of care and on the other hand, with proper planning, the ability of family members to care for patients and reduce the burden of care for medical staff.