Determining the factors affecting the level of preparedness for caregiving of mothers of newly diagnosed children with chronic illness

Introduction: The role of maintaining the health in the family and especially the protection of the health of children is generally undertaken by the mothers. For mothers of children diagnosed with chronic disease for the first time, this process involving new roles and burdens. In this process, mothers may feel inadequate or incompetent in terms of their preparedness to provide care. As a result of the research, it was found that there was no statistically significant difference between the age, sex, type of disease and pre-hospitalization status of mothers according to their descriptive characteristics (p> 0.05). It was found that there was no statistically significant difference between mothers' age groups, income status, caregiving to a person with chronic disease and readiness to provide care according to their status of having another child at home (p> 0.05). Material and Methods: The study population consisted of the mothers of children who were admitted to a public hospital in Istanbul between 7 March and 20 July 2017 and who had been diagnosed with a chronic disease in the last 3 months. After the mothers have read and signed the Written Informed Consent Form, "Preparedness for Caregiving Scale" and "Introductory Information Form For Newly Diagnosed Child with Chronic Ilness and the Mothers to Give Care" the were applied. SPSS 22.0 program was used to evaluate the data and descriptive statistical analysis (number, percentage), Chi-square test, Independent t test, One-way anova and Mann-whitney u tests and Kruskal Wallis Variance analysis were used for the data. P <0.05 was accepted for the level of significance. Results: According to the descriptive characteristics of the children, it was found that there was no statistically significant difference between the preparedness levels of mothers according to the age, sex, type of disease and pre-hospitalization status of their children (p> 0.05). It was found that there was no statistically significant difference between the preparedness levels of mothers mothers' according to theit age groups, income status, caregiving before to a person with chronic disease, having another child at home (p> 0.05). There was a statistically significant difference between preparedness levels of mothers and according to their education and working status (p <0,05). There was a statistically significant difference between mothers' level of preparedness according to their education and working status (p <0, 05). According to the mothers' definitions for their families about managing the chronic disease of the child, the average of the mothers who defined their family at "thriving" stage have the highest preparednessscore and the difference between the groups was statistically significant (p <0.05). It was found that mothers who had received information about the disease of the child and who did not find enough the information they received have higher preparedness level than the mothers who had not received information and did not find enough the information they received and the difference between them was statistically significant (p <0.05). Mothers who received support from their relatives for care had higher levels of preparedness than the mothers who did not take support for care, and the level of preparedness of mothers who share the responsibility of their children with someone was higher than the mothers who took care responsibility alone and the difference between them was found statistically significant (p <0.05). Mothers who found themselves competent in their care had higher level of preparedness than, the mothers who did not find themselves competent in the care. It was found that the mothers who found the nursing care enough given to their children were higher level of preparedness than the mothers who did not find enough and there was a statistically significant difference between them (p <0.05). It was found that there was no significant relationship between mothers have support system and finding themselves competent in care (p> 0.05). It was found that the majority of the mothers who found information about the illness of the child is given them, found themselves sufficient in the care they would give, the other group did not find themselves sufficient, and there was a statistically significant relationship between the sufficient knowledge of the given information and the feeling that the mothers felt sufficient in their care (p <0.05). . Conclusion and Recommendations: In this study, mothers who have high level of education, who are informed, get support from their relatives and perceive their families as thriving families in managing chronic disease process have high preparedness levels for caregiving. To increase awareness of nurses education in this area should start from undergraduate, to increase preparedness level of mothers and make them feel as successful families the with chronically ill children training programs and strategies should be developed. Nurses should increase the support systems of families and refer to the sources of social reference for them. It is suggested to emphasize the direct effect of nursing care on preparedness for caregiving of mothers, and make new studies with the parents of children at different stages of chronic disease. Key Words: Child with chronic illness, mothers, preparedness for caregiving.