Improvement of Care for Families of People after Traumatic Brain Injury in the Czech Republic Family Needs Questionnaire
Abstract
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, the First Faculty of Medicine Charles University and General Teaching Hospital in Prague provides long term rehabilitation for people after traumatic brain injuries (TBI). During several years we have been working not only with patients but also with family members who are sometimes more affected by long and exhausting care than patients themselves.
On World Congress for TBI we have heard about Family needs Questionnaire (FNQ) which seemed to be very good tool for assessment of special needs of families. Getting the agreement for translation of the document and use it for pilot study we have done reverse translation to Czech language and tried to verify its comprehensibility in Czech families.
We used a combination of qualitative data processing including eight respondents' casuistics, as well as quantitative data processing using the categorial data analysis. Qualitative data were analysed from 8 families.
Family members respondents were 6 women and 2 men, average age 61,1 years. Patients were 6 men and 2 women, average age 33,6 years.
Functional Independence measures (FIM) scores of patients were between 19 and 118. Most of patients (5) had in cognitive domain modified dependence (supervision, minimal or moderate assistance).
We hope we can improve the care for people after TBI using FNQ. The synthesis of data analysis of FNQ offers the most important needs and the level of the fulfilment according to the respondents.
We have also realized respondents' reactions to the FNQ and their suggestions for adjusting. The data are very important for our plans concerning implementation of FNQ into everyday practice.