Ms Mulhaeriah Mulhaeriah1,2, Associate Professor Yvonne Parry3, Dr Lua Perimal-Lewis4, Dr Matthew Ankers3, Mr Mohammad Syafar Sangkala1,2
1College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia, 2Faculty of Nursing, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia, 3Caring Futures Institute, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia, 4College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
Biography:
Mulhaeriah is currently pursuing a PhD in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University, Australia. Mulhaeriah is an academic with clinical nursing experience in women’s health areas. She had worked in clinical roles before transitioning into academia in hospital settings and community health centres. Apart from her academic involvement, Mulhaeriah is actively involved in promoting maternal and women’s health, as well as gynaecological cancer patients and their families, and palliative care, through research activities and community services.
Abstract:
Abstract:
Background: Family caregivers play an essential role in the care of women diagnosed with gynaecological cancer. Healthcare providers are committed to helping patients and their family caregivers. Yet, there is a limited study about healthcare providers’ experiences and challenges in supporting family caregivers in the context of gynaecological cancer in Indonesia.
Aims:
To explore the experiences and current approaches provided by healthcare providers in supporting family caregivers of women with gynaecological cancer in Indonesia.
Methods:
Data collection was undertaken through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Twenty healthcare providers (nurses and midwives) who work in the oncology and gynaecology units of the two hospitals in Indonesia. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit the participants. The interviews were analysed using a narrative thematic analysis to identify key themes and individual stories.
Results:
Three themes were found: 1) healthcare providers’ support for family caregivers, 2) communication, and 3) challenges supporting family caregivers. Healthcare providers indicated that they provide a range of support, including assessment of the family caregivers’ needs, provide emotional, spiritual, and social support, deliver health education, empower family caregivers, and collaborate with other healthcare professionals. Participants also recognised the enablers and barriers to effective communication with family caregivers. They also identified difficulties in providing support, which resulted not only from the family caregiver’s interaction but also from systemic challenges related to policymakers, hospital management, the healthcare system, and individual healthcare providers.
Conclusions:
Healthcare providers provided a variety of approaches to address the needs of family caregivers who take care of women with gynaecological cancer. However, they emphasised many challenges in providing support. A systematic needs assessment, multidisciplinary approaches, and strong institutional support are needed to improve nurses’ competence and to provide appropriate interventions into the care.
Keywords:
Gynaecological cancer, Family caregivers, Healthcare providers, Narrative inquiry, Qualitative research.