Avaliação da perceção da autoeficácia dos membros da família prestadores de cuidados que tomam conta de familiares dependentes no autocuidado

: estudo exploratório no Concelho do Porto

Abstract

This investigation meant to study the self-efficacy perception of family caregivers. The increase of the number of persons depending on the self-care, deriving from countless causes, leads to a growth of the number of members of the family that take over the role of caregiver. The self-efficacy perception is the conviction of being able to successfully perform the requested behaviour to produce the desired consequences. The aims defined for this study were: to get to know the level of self-efficacy perception of the family caregivers, within the classic families of the council of Oporto as well as to explore the connection between the self-efficacy perception and the variables of attribute of family caregivers and of the dependent people. The performed study fits in a paradigm of quantitative investigation, of the exploratory and descriptive type. The sample used was probabilistic and stratified bearing in mind the relative weight of each of the communities of the council, in the total universe of classic families of Oporto. For data collection we chose an approach “door to door”, using a form. The self-efficacy perception was assessed by means of a specific tool, built through the debate within the group of investigation and the proofreading of the literature. The work of Schumacher and collaborators (2000) - Family Caregiving Skill: Development of the Concept was the main reference source of its building. The outcoming results show us that the great majority of the family caregivers perceive themselves as "very competent", to take care of his/her dependent relative. Nevertheless, considering the average scores of self-efficacy perception, there are areas where the family caregivers perceive themselves less competent. In this case there are a few particular areas as to deal with the dependency of the relative to enhance, such as: " self turning", " self transferring ", " self toileting " and " taking medication". Considering the family caregiving processes, described by Schumacher and collaborators (2000), the family caregivers feel less competent as far as "accessing resources" is concerned. Despite the members of the family caregivers perceiving themselves very competent while performing the role, we have identified many indicators in the (sub)scales with low casuistry. It is very important that nurses help the family caregivers awareness to the role and cooperate in the building of the personal definition of taking care of the family member.

Date of Award	13 Feb 2014
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Filipe Pereira (Supervisor) & Paulo Parente (Co-Supervisor)