Thesis advisor: Ellen Mahoney / The diagnosis of a primary malignant brain tumor (PMBT) can be devastating for individuals and their families due to the limited treatment options and poor prognosis. Patients often rely on family members to manage their care; however, many caregivers feel under-prepared and overwhelmed by the experience. Though caring for a person with a PMBT is challenging and complex, little research has addressed the family caregiver's performance. The purpose of this study was to identify the extent to which preparedness and caregiver role strain explained the family caregiver’s performance in symptom management. An adapted theoretical framework, The Theory of Unpleasant Symptoms for Family Caregivers, guided this study. The study employed a descriptive, correlational research design in which the researcher obtained cross-sectional data during one collection period. The participants were adults who identified themselves as family caregivers of persons with a PMBT. Forty caregivers were enrolled in the study at the Brain Tumor Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Results from the regression analyses indicated that caregiver role strain and preparedness explained 31% of the variance (adjusted R2) in perceived psychological symptom distress and 29% (adjusted R2) of the variance in perceived physical symptom distress. Caregiver role strain was the major contributor to psychological (B=.68, p=.000) and physical symptoms (B=.48, p=0.001), indicating that higher levels of caregiver role strain were predictive of higher levels of perceived symptom distress and this relationship was strong. Preparedness contributed less to the explained variance in psychological (B=-.24, p=.20) and physical symptoms (B=-.21, p=.14). The negative beta indicates that higher preparedness was related to lower perceived symptom distress, but this relationship was small when compared with role strain. This study informs clinicians in neuro-oncology that care giver role strain is often high in family caregivers of patients with a PMBT and can have a negative impact on caregiver performance. These findings also support the need for more tailored nursing interventions to assist caregivers with ways to decrease caregiver role strain and improve caregiver preparedness. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Connell School of Nursing. / Discipline: Nursing.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_101776 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Linendoll, Nadine M. |
| Publisher | Boston College |
| Source Sets | Boston College |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, thesis |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. |
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