Training of Formal Caregivers Dealing with Alzheimer Diseased Patients at Helwan City Cairo Egypt

Abstract

Alzheimer prevalence increases with aging and in 2012 it is estimated that Alzheimer worldwide will affect 35.6 million people, this number will double by 2030 and more than triple by 2050. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect training program for formal caregivers' dealing with Alzheimer diseased patients at Helwan City Cairo Egypt. Design: A quasiexperimental research design was used. Setting: The study was conducted at four available geriatric homes and out-patient psychiatric clinics in Helwan City. Sampling: A purposive sampling was used for selection of forty formal caregivers'. Tool: A self-designed semi-structured interview questionnaire was used, it included demographic information as; age, sex, professional qualification, and experience, formal caregiver's knowledge regarding Alzheimer disease as definition of Alzheimer, causes, risk factor, prevention and control, attitude questionnaire as I feel confident about people with Alzheimer disease, and I feel uncomfortable being around Alzheimer diseased people and related dementia, and formal caregiver's practices as Practice methods of non-therapeutic care to deal with Alzheimer patients, and Configure appropriate environment to Alzheimer patients Results: The pre /posttests among formal caregivers revealed that overall knowledge, attitude and practices improved with highly statistically significant differences at p <0.001 that approved the hypothesis of implementing training program for formal caregivers. Conclusion: The training program significantly brought out improvements in formal caregivers knowledge, attitude and practices regarding Alzheimer diseased patients. Recommendations: The study can be replicated with a larger number of formal caregivers for generalizations of the results, and further studies conduct to improve nurse's knowledge and practices regarding caring for Alzheimer diseased patients.