The examination of individual coping and despair levels of caregivers for patients in palliative care clinics

Aim: This research was conducted to examine the individual coping attitudes and levels of hopelessness of caregivers of patients admitted to the palliative care clinic. Material and Method: The population of this descriptive and relational study consists of caregivers of patients hospitalized in a palliative care clinic of a state hospital in Istanbul. No sampling method was used, and 200 caregivers who volunteered to participate and met the study criteria were included. Descriptive Characteristics Form, Coping Attitudes Evaluation Scale (COPE), and Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) were used for data collection. Numerical values, percentages, minimum and maximum (Min-Max) values, means, and standard deviations were analyzed, and Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis, and Pearson Correlation analyses were applied. Results: 64% of the participating caregivers were female, and 36% were male. 64.4% of the participants had completed high school, 6.7% had an associate degree, and 28.9% had a bachelor's/master's degree. Additionally, 64.1% were married. It was found that the mean coping attitudes score of caregivers was 150.30±24.00 and the mean Beck hopelessness score was 6.25±4.47. Conclusion: Caregivers' levels of hopelessness were determined to be mild, and their coping levels were high. Factors such as age, marital status, and education level were found to affect caregivers' levels of hopelessness. Further investigation of different variables that may affect caregivers' coping attitudes and levels of hopelessness is recommended.