ผลของโปรแกรมการพยาบาลแบบสนับสนุนและให้ความรู้ในการจัดการภาวะโภชนาการร่วมกับการให้ไข่ข่าวเป็นอาหารเสริมต่อความสามารถในการจัดการภาวะโภชนาการของผู้ดูแลและระดับอัลบูมินในเลือดของผู้สูงอายุติดเตียงที่บ้าน

Abstract

This quasi-experimental research aimed to study the effects of Supportive-Educative Nursing Program for Enhancing Nutritional Care with Egg White Supplementation on the Ability of Caregivers to Manage the Nutritional Status and Serum Albumin Level of Bed-Ridden Elderly at Home. The single-sample groups were 25 bed-ridden elderly persons and 25 caregivers was purposefully selected from one distric in one province of southern Thailand. The experiment was divided into 2 periods (the control and experimental periods). The control period covered the first 8 weeks where the participants (caregivers) provided the usual care for the bedridden elderly. The experimental period covered the following 8 weeks, where the participants (caregivers) provided care based on the program of nutritional management combined with egg white supplementation. This program was • developed from existing knowledge of nutrition therapy, theory of metabolism of albumin and Orem's theory of nursing. The research • instruments included the caregiver's promotion plan, the demographic data assessment form for bed-ridden elderly and caregivers, and the form to assess the ability of the participants (caregivers) to correctly manage the nutritional status for the bed ridden patient. The content validity of all instruments was examined by 3 experts, yielding a CVI of 1.0. The reliability of the form to assess the ability of the participants (caregivers) to correctly manage the nutritional status for the bed ridden patient was examined using Cronbach's alpha coefficient (alpha = 0.94). The effect of the program was measured by the caregiver's capacity and albumin level in the bed-ridden elderly persons at baseline, after the control period and after the experimental period. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the demographic data. one-way repeated measures (ANOVA) were used to test the study hypothesis. The results revealed that after the experiment, the average scores of the ability of participants (caregivers) to manage the nutritional status for bed-ridden elderly at home both after the control period (where usual care was given) and experimental period (where nutritional management combined with egg white supplement was given) had increased significantly (from 150.00 to 151.80, p = 0.009), (from 151.80 to 187.84, p< 0.001). However, the intervention program was able to increase serum albumin level significantly (from 3.56 to 3.72, p= 0.042). The supportive-educative nursing program for enhancing nutritional care with egg white supplementation is able to improve the the ability of caregivers to manage the nutritional status and serum albumin of bed ridden elderly at home. It is recommended that the longitudinal study design should be implemented to monitor the serum albumin to maintain and promote the patients nutritional status.