Evaluation of an Online Home Caregiver Support Program for Non-Professional Caregivers of Patients With Palliative Care Needs

Abstract

Caring for loved ones with palliative needs can be very stressful for carers'. To address this growing issue, an online Home Caregiver Support Program course was created to provide information to non-professional home caregivers about end-of-life care. To measure non-professional caregivers' perceived level of competence in addressing physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs before and after completing online training modules. Learners rated their competence before and after completing online modules addressing 4 key dimensions relevant to palliative caregivers. Self-ratings of competence were assessed through surveys, completed before and after the online modules. Scores from before and after each module were compared to determine if the online course had increased participant competence. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to analyze participant responses to the pre- and post-survey questions. A total of 176 participants who completed one or more of the online modules between July 2017-December 2018, 70 (40%) of the participants completed at least one pre- and post-module survey and did not declare themselves as a professional caregiver. Participating in the online Home Caregiver Support Program increased participants' ratings of perceived competence in all domains (p < .01). This significance was maintained when professional caregivers were added to our analysis. After the completing the modules, participants' self-ratings of perceived competence increased suggesting that participants completing the online program had improved knowledge in addressing the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual challenges faced by non-professional caregivers.