'Development and psychometric evaluation of the safety feeling scale in adult patients at hospital: Exploratory sequential mixed method'.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to develop and examine psychometric properties of the safety feeling scale (SFS) in adult patients to assess their sense of safety during a hospital stay. DESIGN: Mixed methods design. A SQUIRE checklist was used. METHODS: This is a study with two phases of scale development and evaluation of the psychometric properties of the scale. In the first phase, the concept of 'safety feeling' was analysed using a hybrid model. Thus, a systematic review and then a qualitative study with hospitalized patients (n = 31) were conducted by conventional content analysis. In the psychometric phase, factorial validity, reliability, feasibility, and responsiveness of the scale were evaluated by different tests in various samples. RESULTS: After integrating the results of the systematic review and qualitative study, a scale item pool with 84 items was developed. In the psychometric phase, 12 items with four factors were specified; 'effective care,' 'confidence in the healthcare team,' 'emotional enrichment' and 'hygienic facilities,' explaining 51% of the total variance of the scale. They were confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. Internal consistency and stability of the scale were satisfactory. Feasibility and responsiveness were also acceptable.

A systematic review on clinical guidelines of home health care in heart failure patients.

BACKGROUND: "Guidelines for the care of heart failure patients at home support safe and effective evidence-based practice. The aims of the present study were: [1] to identify guidelines addressing the care at home for adults with heart failure and [2] evaluate the quality of the guidelines and the extent to which they address eight components of home-based HF disease management." METHODS: A systematic review was conducted of articles published between 1st of January 2000 to 17th of May 2021 using the databases of PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, Cochrane, and nine specific websites for guideline development organisations. Clinical guidelines for HF patients with recommendations relevant to care provision at home were included. The results were reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA-2020) criteria. The quality of included guidelines was evaluated using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation-II (AGREE-II) by two authors independently. Guidelines were evaluated for their coverage of eight components of HF care at home, consisting of integration, multi-disciplinary care, continuity of care, optimized treatment, patient education, patient and partner participation, care plans with clear goals of care, self-care management and palliative care. RESULTS: Ten HF guidelines, including two nursing-focused guidelines and eight general guidelines were extracted from 280 studies. After evaluation of quality by AGREE-II, two guidelines obtained the highest score: "NICE" and the "Adapting HF guideline for nursing care in home health care settings. Five guidelines addressed all eight components of care at home while the others had six or seven. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review identified ten guidelines addressing care at home for patients with HF. The highest quality guidelines most relevant to the care at home of patients with HF are the "NICE" and "Adapting HF guideline for nursing care in home health care settings" and would be most appropriate for use by home healthcare nurses.

Sense of coherence or self-efficacy as predictors of health-related quality of life in sickle cell disease patients.

Patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) suffer from impaired health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This study aimed to determine the level of HRQoL, sense of coherence (SOC), and self-efficacy (SE) in a sample of SCD patients, and to explore predictors of their physical and mental HRQoL. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 83 SCD patients of one university hospital. The data of the study was collected through Persian versions of the Short-Form Health Survey SF-36 (RAND 36-item), the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-13), and the Sickle Cell Self-Efficacy Scale (SCSES). The mean age of the patients was 26.34 ± 8.19 years old. Patients' mean scores for the Physical Component Summary (PCS), Mental Component Summary (MCS), SOC, and SCSES were 40.57 ± 17.18 (range: 0-100), 50.44 ± 17.95 (range: 0-100), 52.40 ± 15.35 (range: 13-91), 26.40 ± 6.96 (range: 9-45), respectively. Regression models showed that the level of the patients' SOC, was the main predictor of the MCS (ß = 0.37, p < 0.001). However, the level of the patients' SE was the main predictor of the PCS (ß = 0.30, p = 0.004). Also, "blood transfusion history" in patients was a common predictor for both the PCS (ß = - 0.28, p = 0.008) and the MCS (ß = - 0.29, p = 0.003). These results can assist nurses and clinicians to plan clinical interventions for SCD patients by focusing on increasing the level of the SOC and SE and improving SCD patients' HRQoL. Furthermore, measuring the level of the SOC and self-efficacy as screening tests are useful to find patients with a greater risk of impaired HRQoL.

Challenges of Integrated Home-Based Palliative Care Services for Cancer Patients during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Content Analysis.

Given the situation of cancer patients as vulnerable patients and the threat of COVID-19 in the society, integration of home-based palliative care services into the healthcare system is essential. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the current barriers of integration of palliative care services from hospital to home for cancer patients during the COVID-19 Pandemic and to provide suggestions to resolve them. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 stakeholders in the healthcare system, including health policy makers, healthcare providers, clinical home healthcare experts, home healthcare researchers, university faculty members, clergy, family caregivers, and cancer patients. Data were analyzed using directed content analysis method based on the World Health Organization Public Health Strategy for Palliative Care. Challenges were extracted in 4 main categories, containing education barriers (3 subcategories), implementation barriers (9 subcategories), policy barriers (5 subcategories), and drug availability barriers (2 subcategories). Based on the results, removing the barriers and establishing a strong infrastructure for home-based palliative care services is recommended in the healthcare system by concentrating on 4 essential factors, that is, utilizing a coordinating nurse during the process of patient's hospital discharge, establishment of connecting outpatient palliative care clinics to home healthcare centers, access to palliative care tele-medicine and development of a comprehensive and flexible home-based palliative cancer care model in our context.

Nurses' lived experiences of caring for patients with COVID-19: a phenomenological study.

Background: COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a novel Coronavirus which transmits from person to person throughout the world. This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of nurses' caring for patients with COVID-2019 in the context of the healthcare system of Iran. Methods: This is a phenomenological study with 13 participant nurses (6 men and 7 women) who were caring for COVID-19 patients in one of the university hospitals in Southeast of Iran. Qualitative data were analysed by the seven steps of Colaizzi's method. Results: Participants reported around a five-month history of caring for COVID-19 patients. After analysis, 597 codes, 16 categories, four sub-themes, and one theme were extracted. "Caring from self-sacrifice to avoidance" was the main theme of the study with sub-themes of "Anxiety Chain", "Manifestation of Humanitarian Caring", "Ethical Challenges", and "Challenges of Overcoming Crisis". Conclusions: Nurses explained their caring experiences with patients on a continuum from humanitarian caring and self-sacrifice to caring avoidance. Because of the multi-sources of psychological stress and ethical challenges together with this infection, healthcare managers should plan for holistic regular psychological support services, prevention of job inequalities, and do strategic planning for access to enough resources in the healthcare system.

The expansion of the role of nurse prescribing in intensive care units in the healthcare system of Iran: a qualitative content analysis.

Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurses prescribe medication for patients in many countries. However, there is still no evidence on the legitimacy of nurse prescribing roles in the healthcare system of Iran. This qualitative study with 30 experts was conducted to explore the experiences regarding the expanding role of prescribing medication by the ICU nurses. Data were collected through 31 individual semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the conventional content analysis method by MAXQDA 10. One major theme, "applicability of prescribing medication by ICU nurses", together with three sub-themes of "facilitators", "potential risks of nurse prescribing" and "the professional pathway", emerged. The use of successful global experiences, patient-oriented healthcare system policies, current culture and positive professional position of nurses, physician shortage, and high capacity of ICU nurses appeared as facilitators to perform the new role in our context. For the expansion of the new role, different professional pathways such as discussion with physicians and special groups with conflicts of interests, training qualified nurses in this area, and gradual development were proposed by the participants. The next step of the research is to prepare a set of standards for the prescription of medication by the ICU nurses in our context.

Prevalence of sexual dysfunction in women with cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Cancer is one of the most common diseases and it has many physical and psychological consequences. Women with cancer are more likely to suffer from sexual dysfunction (SD) than healthy women. Objective: To estimate the overall prevalence of SD in women with cancer. Materials and Methods: The international databases Google Scholar, Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched for related articles without any time limitation. The keywords "Neoplasia", "Tumor", "Cancer", "Malignancy", "Female Sexual Function Index", "FSFI", and "female sexual dysfunction" along with their combinations were used in the search. Inconsistencies in the data were examined using the I2 test. The data were analyzed using the meta-analysis method and the random-effects model in the Stata software. Results: The analysis of 24 articles with a sample size of 5483 women showed that the prevalence of SD in women with cancer was 66% (95% CI: 59-74%). The highest and lowest prevalence were in Africa and Europe, respectively (75%; 95% CI: 66-83% vs. 43%; 95% CI: 26-60%, respectively). There was no relationship between the prevalence of SD and the mean age of the women, sample size, yr of publication, or quality of articles. Conclusion: SD is highly prevalent in women with cancer. African and American women with cancer have a higher average SD prevalence than Asian and European ones.

Mortality in patients with myocardial infarction and potential risk factors: A five-year data analysis.

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is among the most common causes of death in almost all countries across the world. Awareness of risk factors for the management and prevention of the disease can reduce complications and mortality rates. This study was conducted with the aim to investigate the mortality and potential risk factors of myocardial infarction (MI) as well as their relationships in patients who were admitted to one university hospital in the North of Iran from 2014 to 2018. METHODS: This study had retrospective descriptive design. Using a checklist, all necessary information was extracted from 5-year medical records data of MI patients in the university hospital from 2014 to 2018 (n = 564). The data analysis was performed in SPSS software using descriptive statistics and two binary logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: The results showed that the mean age of the patients was 62.78 ± 13.38 years, and most of them were men (66.3%). The patients' mortality was 18.6% in a 5-year analysis. However, the number of mortalities was higher in the women (P = 0.001). Descriptive analysis showed that the most common risk factors of the disease in both genders were hypertension (46.6%), diabetes mellitus (DM) (38.5%), hyperlipidemia (24.1%), smoking (20%), and family history of CVDs (18.8%), respectively. However, the results of the adjusted regression model showed that the odds ratio (OR) of the patients' mortality increased in diabetic MI patients (OR: 2.33; 95%CI: 1.42-3.81; P = 0.001), but this ratio decreased in MI patients with a history of hyperlipidemia (OR: 0.23; 95%CI: 0.11-0.44; P ˂ 0.001). CONCLUSION: Based on the results, individual- and population-based prevention strategies by focusing on hypertension and diabetes are recommended in our health programs. Surprisingly, the mortality rate of MI patients was lower among those with a history of hyperlipidemia. There are different hypotheses for the cause of this. Therefore, laboratory studies with animal models and prospective cohorts are suggested for future studies.

The experiences of home care team members regarding the needs of family caregivers of heart failure patients in home health care services in Iran: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Home healthcare guidelines emphasize the engagement of family caregivers of heart failure (HF) patients in patient care at home. Thus, this study was conducted with the aim to explore the deep experiences of home care team members regarding the needs of family caregivers of HF patients in home healthcare services in Iran. METHODS: The present qualitative study was performed with a conventional content analysis approach. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 23 participants who were recruited through purposive sampling. The Data were analyzed using the Graneheim and Lundman method for conventional content analysis in MAXQDA Software. RESULTS: The participants included 14 women and 9 men with the mean age of 46.21 ± 11.44 years. After analyzing the interviews, 3 main categories and 15 subcategories were extracted. The main categories were "family caregiver's unmet needs" (with 5 subcategories), "Empowering Informal Caregivers" (with 3 subcategories), and "access to a standard home healthcare system" (with 7 subcategories). CONCLUSION: Deep understanding of the needs of family caregivers of HF patients in home health care services increases the quality of services, the quality of life (QOL) of the family, and prevents patients' hospital readmissions. Moreover, it will contribute to our next project of the home healthcare guideline for HF patients in the health care system of Iran. Identifying the training needs of caregivers within the home health care services has an important role in the designing of education strategies in policy making programs at the level of the Ministry of Health or planning at lower levels of the health network.

The Role of Family Caregiver's Sense of Coherence and Family Adaptation Determinants in Predicting Distress and Caregiver Burden in Families of Cancer Patients.

BACKGROUND: Most cancer patients' families suffer from maladaptation which increases family distress and caregiving burden. This study was conducted to explore the relationship between these maladaptation indicators, and the sense of coherence (SOC) of family caregivers alongside other family resilience determines among family caregivers of cancer patients. METHODS: A total of 104 family caregivers of cancer patients were included in this cross-sectional study. They answered three questionnaires to assess family resilience factors: Family Inventory of Resources for Management (FIRM), Family Crisis Oriented Personal Evaluation Scales (F-COPES), and SOC scale. In addition, family maladaptation factors were determined by two instruments, including Family Distress Index (FDI) and Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI). RESULTS: The results of this study showed that the FIRM and the SOC together were responsible for 35% and 43% of the variances in FDI and CBI scores, respectively (P < 0.001). "Reframing", the subscale of the F-COPES, significantly predicted the variances of FDI (ß = -0.26, P = 0.01) and CBI scores (ß = -0.21, P = 0.04). Moreover, "Mastery and health", the subscale of the FIRM, significantly predicted the variances of FDI (ß = -0.38, P < 0.01) and CBI scores (ß = -0.21, P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Family caregiver's SOC alongside other family resilience determinants plays a significant role in alleviating family distress and caregiver burden. It is suggested that palliative care providers consider family caregivers' SOC in developing a psychological intervention plan to improve family resilience in families of cancer patients.

Predictors of osteoporosis preventive behaviors among adolescent: a cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION: Osteoporosis is a preventable progressive metabolic disease. Girls have an increased risk of occurrence of osteoporosis in their old age. The BASNEF model can be employed to change behaviors related to health. The BASNEF model was employed to determine the predictors of osteoporosis preventive behaviors among adolescent girls. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 209 adolescent girls selected from high schools in the Quchan County in 2016 using path analysis by stratified sampling. The data was collected through a demographic questionnaire and a 52-item researcher-made questionnaire, based on the BASNEF model constructs. The data was analyzed using Shapiro-Wilk test, bootstrapping, and path analysis. RESULTS: The average age of the students was 16.10 ±0.59. The results of path analysis showed that Model 1 matched the BASNEF model relationships completely; however, it could not predict osteoporosis preventive behaviors. The constructs of Model 2 (modified) was able to predict 50% of variances in osteoporosis preventive behaviors. There were positive and direct relationships between the following pairs of constructs: knowledge and attitudes (B = 0.23, p < 0.001); attitudes and the intention of osteoporosis preventive behaviors (B = 0.37, p < 0.001); subjective norms and the intention of osteoporosis preventive behaviors (B = 0.53, p < 0.001); behavioral intention and osteoporosis preventive behaviors (B = 0.36, p < 0.001); subjective norms and osteoporosis preventive behaviors (B = 0.33, p < 0.001), and enabling factors and osteoporosis preventive behaviors (B = 0.29, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The community health nurse can use the constructs of the BASNEF model to change the osteoporosis preventive behaviors like knowledge, attitudes subjective norms and enabling factors.

Transitional Cancer Care Program from Hospital to Home in the Health Care System of Iran.

OBJECTIVES: Transitional care program refers to the health care continuity during transferring from one health care setting to another or to home. This is an essential program for cancer patients and reduces the risk of unnecessary hospital admissions as well as the complications of the disease. The aim of this study was to develop a transitional cancer care program from hospital to home in the health care system of Iran. METHODS: This study is a health policy and system research. It was conducted in four stages from October 2019 to January 2020. The first stage was a qualitative study. The qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 24 participants and a focus group with eight experts. In the second stage, a literature review of transitional care models was carried out. The initial version of the transitional cancer care program was developed based on the qualitative results and the literature review in the third stage. The validity and feasibility of the program were assessed using the Delphi study in the fourth stage. RESULTS: Six major categories were extracted from the qualitative results, consisting of "integrated services for the continuity of care", "holistic care", "care standardization", "the use of telemedicine", "the transparency of rules" and "the care process provision". Using these results and extracted the three common models of transitional care, the initial program was developed in three phases of pre-discharge, post-discharge, and transitional care with six protocols. The content validity of the program (98.7%) and its feasibility (95.8%) were approved by experts in the Delphi rounds. CONCLUSIONS: It is necessary to revise hospitals' discharge program, and home health care center's plan for admission and delivering health care services for cancer patients. Also, a pilot program is necessary to find the system advantages and disadvantages.
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Spiritual care experiences by cancer patients, their family caregivers and healthcare team members in oncology practice settings: A qualitative study.

PURPOSE: Integrating spirituality into the patient care within a healthcare team, increases the ability to provide "holistic care" for cancer patients. The spiritual care experiences of different involved persons can be a guide for future planning. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the spiritual care experiences of hospitalized cancer patients, their family caregivers and healthcare team members in oncology settings. METHODS: This is a descriptive qualitative study which was conducted with 21 participants, who were selected by purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data. The data were analyzed with conventional content analysis method. RESULTS: Two themes of "systematic care" and "caring with paradoxical results" were extracted from the spiritual care experiences of our participants. CONCLUSIONS: Spiritual care as professional, comprehensive, collaborative and artistic care should be provided in a multidisciplinary healthcare team for cancer patients. Otherwise, patients may experience deprivation of spiritual services and consequently, spiritual distress.

Home care for burn survivors: A phenomenological study of lived experiences.

Background: Burn injuries have negative impacts on all dimensions of the quality of life of burn victims. This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of burn survivors after a 6-month period of home care following hospital discharge.Method: This is a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach. Sixteen burn survivors from a university hospital in Kermanshah province participated in the study. Qualitative data were analyzed by Colaizzi's descriptive phenomenological approach.Results: "Rehabilitation in the process of life" was the main theme of the study with four sub-themes, including "conducting process", "caring bridge", "humanitarian commitment for human revival", and "healing care".Conclusions: Home care is necessary for burn survivors after discharge from the hospital. The connection of healthcare services between home and hospital, safety feeling in the patient and his/her family, cost-effectiveness of healthcare services, and encouraging the patient to perform self-care can be achieved by home care follow-ups.

Exploring the relationship between sexual function, sense of coherence, and well-being in a sample of Iranian breast cancer survivors.

PURPOSE: This study was aimed at exploring the type and role of relationships between sexual function, sense of coherence (SOC), and well-being in a sample of Iranian breast cancer survivors. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study with correlational design, data were collected from 181 survivors by consecutive sampling. They answered demographic and clinical information sheet, the SOC scale, the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), and the Health Index (HI). The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. RESULTS: The mean age of survivors was 47.04 ± 9.05 years. Most survivors were menopausal (51.9%) and underwent mastectomy (69.1%), and 12 months or more had passed since their treatment ended (71.2%). Sexual function was positively correlated with the level of SOC (r = 0.20) and the HI (r = 0.33). Also, there was a positive correlation between the level of SOC and the HI (r = 0.51). The results of logistic regression analyses showed the protective role of the SOC (OR: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.92-0.97) and the HI (OR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.79-0.96) for women's sexual function. According to these results, the mediating role of the SOC was assessed between the variables of the HI and the FSFI. The SOC revealed a complete mediating effect in this relationship. CONCLUSIONS: The mediator role of the SOC between survivors' well-being and their sexual function helps nurses and clinicians to understand how the SOC can be used as a screening test to detect survivors who are at risk of sexual problems and to plan for salutogenic interventions.

Application of Rasch Analysis for Development and Psychometric Properties of Adolescents' Quality of Life Instruments: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Due to the importance of assessing quality of life (QoL) in healthy and ill adolescents, the evaluation of psychometric properties of these questionnaires is important. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the application of Rasch analysis in psychometric assessment studies on adolescents' QoL instruments, and to evaluate the quality of reporting Rasch parameters in these studies. METHODS: This systematic review was conducted by searching for papers in electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and Scopus until December 2018. RESULTS: After screening 122 papers, 31 remained in the study. Around 68% of the studies used the Rasch analysis for instrument testing and 32% for the development of new instruments. In 77.4% of studies, both classical and Rasch methods were used parallel to data analysis. In 32.2% of studies, healthy adolescents were the main target group. The most commonly used instrument in Rasch studies was, KIDSCREEN, administered in different countries. Six Rasch parameters were reported with a higher percentage in the studies. Major reported parameters of Rasch analysis were application of the software program (96.7%), test of item fit to the Rasch model (93.5%), unidimensionality (80.6%), type of the identified mathematical Rasch model (74.1%), threshold (58%) and differential item functioning (54.8%). Based on the psychometric evaluation of the QoL instruments, 71% of studies showed acceptable results. CONCLUSION: The application of the Rasch model for psychometric assessment of adolescents' QoL questionnaires has increased in recent decades. But, there is still no strong and commonly used critical appraisal tool or guideline for the evaluation of these papers.

Recommendations for spiritual care in cancer patients: a clinical practice guideline for oncology nurses in Iran.

BACKGROUND: In spite of the necessity of implementing spiritual care practices for cancer patients, there is no clear process in this regard in palliative care programs of the health system of countries. The present study was designed with the aim of developing a clinical practice guideline of spiritual care in cancer patients for oncology nurses in the current context. METHODS: This is a multi-method study which was conducted in five stages within the framework of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline. A research committee consisting of four focal and 16 secondary members was formed. The stages included determining the scope of the study, developing guideline (a qualitative study and a systematic review, triangulation of the data, and producing a preliminary draft), consultation stage (validation of the guideline in three rounds of the Delphi study), as well as revision and publication stages. RESULTS: The clinical guideline of spiritual care with 84 evidence-based recommendations was developed in three main areas, including the human resources, care settings, and the process of spiritual care. CONCLUSIONS: We are hoping by applying this clinical guideline in oncology settings to move towards an integrated spiritual care plan for cancer patients in the context of our health system. Healthcare organizations should support to form spiritual care teams under supervision of the oncology nurses with qualified healthcare providers and a trained clergy. Through holistic care, they can constantly examine the spiritual needs of cancer patients alongside their other needs by focusing on the phases of the nursing process.

Predictors of Health-Promoting Lifestyle in Pregnant Women Based on Pender's Health Promotion Model.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pregnancy causes changes in women's lifestyle; therefore, their health-promoting behaviors should be improved in order to avoid problems during this critical period, which requires knowledge of the factors affecting these behaviors. This study was conducted to determine the predictors of health-promoting lifestyles in pregnant women based on Pender's health promotion model constructs. METHODS: This descriptive study was carried out on 300 pregnant women in their second and third trimesters of pregnancy and sought to determine the correlation between lifestyle and the constructs of Pender's health promotion model. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP-II) and a questionnaire based on Pender's model constructs. Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics. FINDINGS: A health-promoting lifestyle had a significant positive correlation with the constructs of social support and perceived benefits and a significant negative correlation with the construct of perceived barriers (P<0.05). A health-promoting lifestyle also had a significant relationship with the constructs of perceived barriers, social support and perceived benefits in pregnant women (P<0.05) based on the results of the regression analysis. The regression coefficients showed that all the three variables can significantly explain the variance in health promoting lifestyles in pregnant women (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: According to the results of the present study and based on the constructs of Pender's health promotion model, social support, perceived benefits and perceived barriers were the most important predictors of health-promoting lifestyles in pregnant women. These predictor constructs are recommended to be further considered in designing and implementing training packages and interventions for promoting pregnant women's lifestyle.

The effect of family-centered empowerment program on the family caregiver burden and the activities of daily living of Iranian patients with stroke: a randomized controlled trial study.

Dependence of stroke survivors regarding the ability to perform activities of daily living imposes a burden on family caregivers. The study evaluated the effect of the family-centered empowerment program on the ability of Iranian patients with stroke to perform activities of daily living, as well as on family caregiver burden. In this randomized controlled trial study, a total of 90 pairs of patients with stroke and their family caregivers was selected and randomly assigned to the intervention or control groups. Patients and their family caregivers participated in four family-centered empowerment program sessions over four consecutive days while the patient was hospitalized. The difference in the ability of patients with stroke in the intervention and control groups to perform activities of daily living was not significant 2 weeks after the intervention. However, the ability of patients with stroke in the intervention group to perform activities of daily living increased significantly 2 months after the intervention compared with the control group: 66 ± 35.95 and 51.31 ± 36.28, respectively (p = 0.047). Two weeks after the intervention, the family caregiver burden significantly decreased in the intervention group (29.55 ± 15.38) compared with the control group (38.77 ± 18.53 and p = 0.012). The burden in the intervention group also decreased 2 months after the intervention compared with the control group: 22.95 ± 15.68 and 36.11 ± 18.88, respectively (p < 0.001). Nurses can use the family-centered empowerment program to improve the quality of life of patients with stroke, and to reduce the burden of family caregivers.