Effectiveness of Education Programme on Knowledge among Caregivers of Stroke Patients

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability in India and the responsibility of care is often left with relatives or spouse of the stroke patients. The caregivers often reported lack of knowledge and understanding regarding care of stroke client. Hence this study was aimed to assess the effectiveness of structured education on knowledge among caregivers of stroke patients regarding stroke care.

A quasi experimental one group pre-test and post-test design was adopted. Twenty subjects were recruited by purposive sampling in a tertiary care teaching hospital, Andrapradesh. Each caregiver received individualized instruction and skill oriented training for 60 minutes/session, followed by 20 minutes of discussion in the clinical setting.. It includes various teaching strategies like lecture, discussion and demonstration using appropriate A.V. aids. The entire data collection and individualized instruction were done by two investigators who were nursing graduates at the time of data collection. The data were collected by questionnaire and participants above 13 (50%) and below 13(50%) were considered as adequate knowledge and inadequate knowledge respectively.

The mean and standard deviation of knowledge scores before and after structured teaching programme were 13.65 + 3.16 and 20.05 + 3.36 respectively. It showed that there was significant gain in knowledge score after education programme (t=6.15, p value=0.0001).Hence, education programme will be beneficial in improving knowledge of the caregivers.