Learning Resources for Family Caregivers

How Hospitals Facilitate Family Caregiver Education

caregiver showing older woman a mobile phone

More than 20 million people in the United States perform medical/nursing tasks at home for their family members and friends. Many of these family caregivers are left on their own to learn how to provide that complex care, such as administering pills, suppositories, and injections, caring for wounds, and managing intense pain.

Hospital leaders across the country share how they use learning resources to prepare family caregivers to perform that care in Learning Resources and Practices to Improve Patient and Family Engagement: 12 Ways to Facilitate Family Caregiver Education.

This paper notes that more and/or better instruction is the most common response from family caregivers when asked what would make it easier to perform medical/nursing tasks at home. The paper also details their preferred instructional formats.

Integration with Staff Training

A key aspect of providing learning resources is coordinating the information with staff training to successfully integrate family caregivers as members of the care team throughout the hospital stay. As a result:

Clinicians learn to actively anticipate what family caregivers need to know and encourage family caregiver input in decision making.
Family caregivers learn how to manage the care recipient’s recovery, comfort, and quality of life. They also learn how to avert complications at home that can lead to distressing and costly emergency department visits and readmissions.
Care coordination during the hospital stay improves, which promotes good outcomes and helps prevent discharge delays.

Key Findings

Clinicians across roles learn how to assess family caregiver needs and readiness so they can provide appropriate information one on one and in group settings.
Culturally appropriate resources help ensure family caregiver understanding.
Health care systems distribute digital and printed material during the hospital stay and after discharge.
Staff members document family caregiver support, including learning resources, in the electronic health record (EHR) to enable clinicians across roles and shifts to understand family caregiver willingness, availability, capabilities, and limitations.

AARP is a founding member of the Home Alone Alliance™. The Supporting Family Caregivers Providing Complex Care series offers three ways to share progress on how hospitals provide family caregivers with more guidance and help in the hospital. Derived from Home Alone Alliance visits to health care systems that are implementing the Caregiver Advise, Record, Enable (CARE) Act, we offer Theme, Promising Practice, and Spotlight papers. The series is intended not to provide recommendations but rather to share information gathered during hospital site visits. The snapshots from the field offer insights and open a dialogue about supporting family caregivers who provide complex care after discharge.