The effect of education and follow-up on diabetic foot patients and patient's caregivers on burnout

THE EFFECT OF EDUCATİON AND FOLLOW-UP ON DİABETİC FOOT PATİENTS AND PATİENT'S CAREGİVERS ON BURNOUT Objective: Caregivers of the patient with diabetic foot wound have to undertake many roles and responsibilities that may create a care burden due to the patient's mobility reduction, surgical intervention and amputation. This situation may lead to burnout of the caregiver. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of education and follow-up applied to diabetic foot patients and caregivers on the level of burnout associated with care work in caregivers. Our secondary aim is to reveal the factors associated with burnout syndrome observed in caregivers of diabetic foot patients. Method:Our research is planned as a single-center, intervention study. Patients and caregivers who applied to Adnan Menderes University Practice and Research Hospital Chronic Wounds and Infections Care Unit between 01.04.2019-31.05.2019 and followed up with a diagnosis of diabetic foot formed the intervention group. Between 01.06.2019-31.07.2019, patients and caregivers who were hospitalized formed the control group. However, the period was extended until 09.08.2019 as the control group did not reach the sufficient number. Sociodemographic and medical history data form (appendix-4) and Maslach burnout scale were applied to the case and control group. In the case group, patients and caregivers were given face-to-face training (Annex-1) on diabetic foot care and methods of dealing with stress. Patients and caregivers were monitored by phone call for two months, once every two weeks by applying a structured support program (Annex -3). At the end of the follow-up, the caregivers were called by phone and 'Maslach Burnout Inventory' was applied again. No intervention was applied to the control group, and a questionnaire and scale were applied 2 months later. After the data were collected, statistical analysis was done through SPSS package program. The necessary ethics committee permits were obtained from the Adnan Menderes University Ethics Committee. Results:After the intervention, we found that emotional and depersonalization subscales decreased significantly in both case and control groups. There was no statistical difference in personal achievement score averages. In addition, the burnout in individuals who care for people with DAE in our study; we observed that the caregivers were affected by factors such as gender, working status of the patient, the time elapsed after the diagnosis of DM, patient's feeling of exhaustion, duration of care, working status of the caregiver, patient's contribution in care, economic and health problems of the caregiver. Conclusions: In our study, where we investigated the effect of training and the two-month follow-up of RIA patients and caregivers on their diseases and methods of coping with stress, we found that the levels of emotional and depersonalization subscales decreased in both case and control groups.