Paging friends and family: Caregivers crucial to in-hospital cardiac arrest survivors
劳拉·威廉姆森，美国心脏协会线上电子游戏飞禽走兽
People who provide care for loved ones in the years following a cardiac arrest in the hospital are critical to the survivor's recovery. 但这样做可以创造一种目的感, it also pulls caregivers away from their social networks and disrupts their lives and relationships, new research finds.
The study, 周三发表在《线上娱乐电子游戏网站》上, highlights the positive and negative ways caregiving changed the lives of caregivers, how people coped with those challenges and their need for additional support and resources.
"There hasn't been a whole lot of focus on caregivers for survivors of in-hospital cardiac arrest,该研究的主要作者莫莉·哈罗德说, a health services researcher for the Ann Arbor VA Center for Clinical Management Research in Michigan. "Most research has focused on out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, which is a different kind of trauma."
Only about 9% of U.S. adults who experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survive, according to the latest 美国心脏协会统计数据. 但医院内心脏骤停的存活率约为19%. Previous research 在美国，大约有29万成年人心脏骤停.S. hospitals each year.
"For in-hospital cardiac arrest, they're in the hospital for another reason, usually," Harrod said. “当他们从心脏骤停中幸存下来时, 他们入院时还存在潜在的健康问题."
For example, someone may be admitted to the hospital for issues related to controlling diabetes, she said, 当他们突然经历心脏骤停时. 当他们出院时, they may need care to help recover from the cardiac arrest as well as ongoing care for diabetes.
"All of a sudden, the caregiver has to fulfill a role they were not considering," she said.
In the study, Harrod and her colleagues interviewed 19 veterans who survived an in-hospital cardiac arrest and asked them to identify a friend or family member who was their primary caregiver. Of the 17 caregivers identified, 12 agreed to be interviewed by phone about their experiences. 所有人都是女性，其中9人是退伍军人的配偶. 剩下的三个, 谁没有和幸存者住在一起, one was a parent, one was a sibling, 其中一个是成年儿童. 这些退伍军人中有10名男性，2名女性，平均年龄为62岁.
大多数幸存者出院后都在家中接受了专业护理. 但四五年后, 在面试的时候, 所有人仍在接受家人或朋友的照顾. 护理人员执行诸如提供交通等任务, dispensing medication, 买菜和做饭, providing emotional support and acting as the survivor's main source of information.
Harrod said most of the experiences the caregivers described fell under the theme of disruption – "how caregiving disrupted their own lives, 他们与退伍军人的关系以及他们自己的幸福."
接受采访的人称照顾退伍军人是“身体上的”, 精神上和情感上的困难," Harrod said.
Many described withdrawing from their own social activities because they feared their loved one might have another cardiac arrest while they were gone. The caretaking demands sometimes made it difficult to take care of their own needs. Harrod said many described experiencing depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“这是心脏骤停后的五年, 他们仍然在与这些问题作斗争," she said.
但一些看护人描述的破坏是积极的. 哈罗德说，有些人“真的为能够做到这一点感到自豪”.
看护的积极方面没有得到足够的重视, said Ranak Trivedi, a clinical health psychologist and assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University in California. "People do it because they care about the people they are taking care of and they often do feel a stronger sense of connection, 目的感和意义感," she said.
不同的文化对照顾也有不同的态度, said Trivedi, 谁没有参与这项研究. 例如，在许多亚洲文化中，“他们没有那么多的负担感. There are more positive aspects because they feel like they are carrying out a duty or meeting a need. They feel positive emotions because they are role modeling for the next generation."
Some caregivers found coping strategies to manage the negative aspects of their role, 包括咨询和减压活动, 比如园艺或祈祷, Harrod said. "They were trying to find different ways of coping and were very resourceful in that."
But they also described a need for respite care and support that would give them needed breaks, she said. "They felt comfortable with having a health care provider there so they could go outside the home."
That type of care is typically provided immediately following discharge from the hospital, 但不是长期的, Harrod said. "The caregivers felt that if some of that could continue, it would give them a break."
Trivedi said caregivers also need more recognition within the health care system for the role they play.
“他们通常不被视为一个人的医疗团队的一部分, 尽管他们是日常治疗病人的专家," she said. “我们没有把护理人员当作专家来对待."