Assessing and Managing Caregiver Stress: Development of a Teaching Tool for Medical Residents |
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Authors: | Abisola Famakinwa MD Anne Fabiny MD |
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Affiliation: | 1. Harvard Medical School , Boston, MA, USA;2. Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital , Bedford, MA, USA abisola.famakinwa@va.gov;4. Cambridge Health Alliance , Cambridge, MA, USA |
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Abstract: | ABSTRACT Forty medical residents from major teaching hospitals in Boston, Massachusetts, participated in small group teaching sessions about caregiver stress. A teaching tool was developed that included a teaching handout, interactive cases, standard instruments for assessing caregiver stress, peer-reviewed articles about caregiving, and a list of resources that would be useful to a caregiver. These materials and teaching format were evaluated using a pre- and posttest and a feedback form. Forty residents completed the pretest and posttest. They scored significantly higher on the posttest for questions that covered estimated cost of caregiving (p = 0.0073), physical stress from caregiving (p = 0.0196), and identifying elder abuse (p = 0.0006). Ninety percent of the residents completed the evaluation form and rated the intervention highly. Teaching medical residents about caregiver stress resulted in a significant increase in knowledge about this topic. This study makes the case for the integration of “Caregiver Stress” into the primary care residency curriculum. |
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Keywords: | Medical residents caregiver stress teaching tool |
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