"I always find myself very tired and exhausted": The physical impact of caring; a descriptive phenomenological study of the experiences of prostate cancer caregivers in Cape Coast, Ghana.

INTRODUCTION: Prostate cancer is a significant public health burden and a significant cause of morbidity and mortality among men worldwide. This study, therefore, explored how caring affects the physical health of family caregivers of prostate cancer patients. METHOD: The study adopted a descriptive phenomenological method. Twelve participants were recruited using the purposive sampling technique. A semi-structured face to face, in-depth interviews were conducted with family caregivers of patients living with prostate cancer. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, and the data were analysed using Colaizzi's phenomenological approach. FINDINGS: The family caregiver's experience with the physical impact associated with caregiving uncovered two significant themes with six sub-themes. "Rest and Sleep" emerged as the first central theme, with sleeplessness, fatigue, pain, and worsening pre-existing conditions as the sub-themes. The second main theme was 'Nutrition' with altered eating patterns and weight loss emerging as sub-themes. CONCLUSION: The study suggests that family caregivers of patients treated for prostate cancer may struggle with physical consequences associated with the caregiving role, which impacts their physical health. It is of great importance, especially for nurses, to come up with measures to minimise these adverse physical effects on the family caregivers through formal education programmes and training on how to care for these patients at home.

Challenges encountered by family caregivers of prostate cancer patients in Cape Coast, Ghana: a descriptive phenomenological study.

BACKGROUND: In Ghana, prostate cancer is more prevalent than all other cancers, with a mortality rate of 75% partly due to late presentation to the health care facilities. Limited health services provision across the country and shortages of skilled nurses place a significant demand on family caregivers who are often ill-equipped for the caring role, resulting in many challenges. As they are expected to provide complex care at home with little resources, information, and support, the healthcare system rarely addresses the challenging needs of these family caregivers. This study explored the challenges encountered by family caregivers of people with prostate cancer. METHODS: We conducted interviews using a descriptive phenomenological approach. Twelve family caregivers of prostate cancer patients were selected through a purposive sampling technique at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using Colaizzi's (1978) data analysis approach. RESULTS: Three main themes were identified as critical challenges: education and training needs, resources and caregiver-nurse relationship issues. Under the three main themes emerged seven sub-themes that collectively hindered the family caregiver's ability to meet the care demands. Sub-themes that emerged were; lack of preparedness towards the caring role, lack of knowledge about condition/ treatment, misconception about the condition, lack of accommodation facilities, financial constraints, poor communication, and poor staff attitude. CONCLUSION: Caregiving is associated with significant challenges that hinder the family caregiver's ability to care for the patient effectively, further diminishing the caregiver's quality of life and patient care. Therefore, healthcare professionals, especially nurses, should consider these challenges family caregivers face and take measures to obviate them through education, preparation and support.

Coping with personal care and stigma: experiences of persons living with schizophrenia.

Living with a chronic mental condition such as schizophrenia impacts significantly on the individual's social functioning and activities of daily living. However, there is little data on the experiences of people living with schizophrenia, especially in Ghana regarding personal care and stigma. This study explored qualitatively the experiences of people living with schizophrenia in Southern Ghana. Nine people with schizophrenia were purposively recruited for this study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically following a descriptive phenomenological data analysis framework. The study revealed that people with schizophrenia are capable of performing some activities of daily living, such as maintenance of personal and environmental hygiene and medication management. However, some participants narrated their experiences of stigma and thus, resorted to certain strategies such as spirituality, medication adherence and mental fortitude to cope with schizophrenia. In conclusion, it was evident that people with schizophrenia, in their lucid intervals, can undertake various activities of daily living, including personal care, however, living with schizophrenia impacts on psychological well-being enormously, and thus, education, counselling, and client adherence to the treatment may improve quality of life.

Living with hepatitis B virus infection; media messaging matters.

Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection is of public health importance due to its high prevalence and infectivity. A positive test for HBV has psychological, emotional, and socio-economic implications that may affect the quality of life of the clients. The media is a major source of information and awareness creation on many health related issues including HBV. This study explored how media messaging on HBV influenced coping among persons infected with HBV. Twelve in-depth interviews were conducted among clients who reported at the STI clinic for routine care at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, Ghana. Descriptive content analysis involving deductive and inductive approaches were applied. The findings show that radio was the main source of HBV related information. Misinformation on the transmission, chronicity and prognoses of HBV infection was mostly conveyed by traditional medicine practitioners on the media. These resulted in adverse emotional, social, and physical reactions such as fear and panic, isolation and loneliness, sleeplessness and unsafe health seeking behaviours. However, access to scientific information from health professionals resulted in empowerment and positive coping. More need to be done to regulate the content of HBV-related messages aired so as to avoid misinformation and its consequent negative impact on coping.