The effect of psychological resilience level and care burden on psychosocial adjustment of relatives of patients who have had cardiac surgery

The study was carried out to determine the effects of caregivers' burden of care and psychological resilience levels on patients' psychosocial adjustment. The universe of the research has been created by Patients who had open heart surgery between June 2020 and December 2020, and their caregivers; the sample has been created by patients (n=100) and caregivers (n=100) who met the inclusion criteria. Data was collected using Personal Information Form the Connor Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), Zarit Care Burden Scale (ZCBS), and Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Self-Report Scale (PAIS-SR). In the evaluation of the data; number, percentage, arithmetic mean standard deviation Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis test, correlation and regression analyzes were used. According to the research findings; It was determined that the adjustment of the patients was poor, the caregiver's care burden was at a light level and their psychological resilience level was at a moderate level. In patients with open heart surgery; It was determined that those with regular drug use (p<0.05) and those who had communication difficulties with their caregivers (p<0.05) had poor psychosocial adjustment to the disease. In caregivers; Those who have communication difficulties with the patient (p<0.01), no one else participating in the caregiving responsibility (p<0.01), those who have insufficient knowledge about caregiving (p<0.01) have higher care burden and psychological resilience levels were found to be lower. In addition, it was determined that there were significant relationships in the correlation analysis between the PAIS-SR scores of the patients and the CD-RISC and ZCBS scores of the caregivers and as the psychological resilience level of the caregivers increased and the care burden scores decreased, the psychosocial adjustment levels of the patients increased. In conclusion, the study shows that the psychological resilience levels of caregivers and the burden of care are important factors on the postoperative adjustment of patients who have had open heart surgery. In this regard, priority should be given to preventive and improving health practices aimed at increasing the psychosocial adjustment of patients undergoing open heart surgery. Key Words: Caregiver Burden, Open Heart Surgery, Patient Relatives, Psychosocial Adjustment, Psychological Resilience,