Nursing home care educational intervention for family caregivers of older adults post stroke (SHARE): study protocol for a randomised trial

BACKGROUND Family caregivers of aged stroke survivors face challenging difficulties such as the lack of support and the knowledge and skills to practice home care. These aspects negatively influence the caregivers' burden and quality of life, the use of health services, and hospital readmissions of the stroke survivor. The aim of this research is to describe an educational intervention focused on family caregivers of stroke survivors for the development of home care in the south of Brazil. METHODS A randomized clinical trial with 48 family caregivers of stroke survivors will be recruited and divided into two groups: 24 in the intervention group and 24 in the control group. The intervention will consist of the systematic follow-up by nurses who will perform three home visits over a period of 1 month. The control group will not receive the visits and will have the usual care guidelines of the health services. Primary outcomes: burden and quality of life of the caregiver. SECONDARY OUTCOMES functional capacity and readmissions of the stroke survivors; the use of health services of the stroke survivors and their family caregivers. Outcomes will be measured 2 months after discharge. The project was approved in April 2016. DISCUSSION This research offers information for conducting educational intervention with family caregivers of stroke survivors, presenting knowledge so that nurses can structure and plan the actions aimed at the education of the family caregiver. It is expected that the educational intervention will contribute to reducing caregiver burden and improving their quality of life, as well as avoiding readmissions and inadequate use of health services by stroke survivors. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT02807012 . Registered on 3 June 2016. Name: Nursing Home Care Intervention Post Stroke (SHARE).