노인 가족요양보호사의 배우자 돌봄 경험

Abstract

This study was conducted to explore spousal caregiving experiences among elderly family care workers in depth. To achieve this, seven elderly family care workers who were taking care of their spouses were selected as study participants through purposive and snowball sampling methods. Data were collected in an average of two or more interviews, and spousal caregiving experiences were analyzed for content and meaning using Giorgi (1985)’s phenomenological qualitative method. The results showed 219 meaning units, 58 focal meanings, and 16 emerging themes, and we identified 4 essential themes by reviewing their correlations. The themes were divided into the following categories: ‘It is my spouse, whether you hate it or love it,’ ‘A tunnel with no end in sight for caregiving,’ ‘Challenges and achievements as an elderly family care worker,’ and ‘A journey of spousal caregiving, which becomes more mature as I embrace myself as an elderly family care worker,’ The central theme was ‘Tending to my spouse with my own hands at home while the twilight fades,’ Based on these results, this study suggests that elderly family care workers need institutional, financial, and emotional support to ensure they can provide spousal caregiving in a stable manner at the clinical and policy levels of social welfare.