Effectiveness of Empowerment Programme on Stress and Care Giving Burden among Care Givers of Chronically Ill Patients Admitted in MMIMS&R Hospital, Mullana Ambala, Haryana.

Background- One of the most compassionate and self-sacrificing things a person can do is care for a sick loved one. Caring for a family member with impaired mental and behavioral functioning presents the most stressful of care giving situations. Keeping family caregivers healthy and able to provide care is crucial to maintaining our nation's long-term healthcare system. Aims- To assess the effectiveness of Empowerment programme regarding stress and care giving burden among care givers of chronically ill patients in experimental and comparison group. Material and Methods - A Quasi Experimental non Equivalent control group pretest post test design. 95 care givers of chronically ill patients (50 in experimental and 45 in comparison group) selected from hospital by using convenience sampling technique. Empowerment programme was administered in experimental group. Selected demographic characteristics, standardized perceived stress scale and standardized care giver burden scale were used to collect data. Results- The study showed that the mean post test 1 and post test 2 stress score was 12.44 ± 2.10 & 12.26±2.05 and 14.11 ± 3.11 & 14.40± 3.12 in experimental and comparison group respectively. There was no significant correlation between stress and care giving burden. There was no association of care giving burden score of the care givers in experimental and comparison group with their selected patient demographic characteristics and there was no significant association of care giving burden scores with their selected care giver demographic characteristics in experimental group and in comparison group except gender. Conclusion- Empowerment programme was effective in reducing stress and care giving burden among care givers of chronically ill patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]