Search

Purpose: Informal caregivers (ICs) in Africa perform a long list of tasks to support hospitalization care. However, available studies are weak in accounting for the experiences of everyday role-routines of hospital-based informal caregiving (HIC) in under-resourced settings. This article explored the experiences of role-routines among informal caregivers in a Nigerian tertiary health facility. Methods: The ethnographic exploratory study relied on primary data collected from 75 participants, including 21 ICs, 15 inpatients, 36 hospital staff, and 3 ad-hoc/paid carers in a tertiary health facility in Southwestern Nigeria. Results: ICs perform several essential roles for hospitalized relatives, with each role characterized by a range of tasks. An integrative narrative of everyday routines of HIC as experienced by ICs showed critical complexities and complications involved in seemingly simple tasks of assisting hospitalized relatives with hygiene maintenance, medical investigations, blood donation, resource mobilization, errand-running, patient- and self-care and others. The role-routines are burdensome and ICs' experiences of them revealed the undercurrents of how health systems dysfunctions condition family members to support hospitalization care in Nigeria. Conclusion: The intensity and repetitive nature of role-routines is suggestive of "routinization of suffering". We recommend the closing of gaps driving hospital-based informal caregiving in Africa's under-resourced settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal caregivers support relatives in healthcare facilities globally. However, their involvement in hospitalization care while residing in and around the hospital is more prevalent in under-resourced settings. This article examined the challenges and multifaceted consequences of hospital-based informal caregiving in a Nigerian tertiary health facility. The study adopted a non-experimental exploratory research design and ethnographic and qualitative techniques were used to collect data from 75 participants, comprising 21 informal caregivers, 15 inpatients, 36 hospital staff, and 3 ad-hoc/paid caregivers. The challenges identified include: physical health effects and infection risks; livelihood and economic impact; mental health effects; inadequate access to basic services; exposure to safety risks and violence; conflict and barriers within the health system; and social impact. These challenges have negative consequences on informal caregivers, including heightening their vulnerability to poor health and burdening them economically and socially. Informal caregivers play a crucial role in under-resourced settings. Policymakers should create a supportive healthcare environment that meets their needs, ultimately improving the overall quality of care provided in tertiary health facilities., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.