Background: Post-acute home health-care (HHC) services provide a unique opportunity to train and support family caregivers of older adults returning home after a hospitalization. To enhance family-focused training and support strategies, we must first understand caregivers' experiences.
Objective: To explore caregivers' experiences regarding training and support for managing older adults' physical functioning (PF) needs in the post-acute HHC setting.
Method: We conducted a qualitative descriptive study using semi-structured telephone interviews of 20 family caregivers. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using conventional content analysis.
Results: We identified the following primary categories: facilitators to learning (eg, past experience, learning methods), barriers to learning (eg, learning on their own, communication, timing/logistics, preferred information and timing of information delivery), and interactions with HHC providers (eg, positive/negative interactions, provider training and knowledge).
Conclusion: Caregivers were responsive to learning strategies to manage older adults' PF needs and, importantly, voiced ideas to improve family-focused training and support. HHC providers can use these findings to tailor training and support of family caregivers in the post-acute HHC setting.
Keywords: home health; hospitalization; older adults; physical functioning; post-acute; qualitative research.
© The Author(s) 2019.