HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS AND STROKE SURVIVORS UNDERSTANDING OF SELF-MANAGEMENT

A. Rhoda¹, R. Jansen¹, Y. Moothan¹

¹University of the Western Cape, Physiotherapy, Cape Town, South Africa

Background: Self-management programmes contribute to positive functional outcomes in patients who have suffered a stroke. Furthermore, self-management programmes have been linked to a reduction in the use of the healthcare system and a reduced cost of the provision of healthcare services. This is especially important in developing countries where there is limited provision of rehabilitation for individuals who have suffered a stroke. For successful implementation of a rehabilitation strategy such as self-management support, it is important that both the provider and the receiver of the service understand the concept.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to determine the healthcare professionals' and stroke survivors’ understanding of self-management.

Methods: A qualitative, descriptive study design was applied to collect the data. The participants which included both patients with stroke and healthcare professionals were recruited using purposive sampling. Data was collected using focus group discussions with healthcare professionals and in-depth interviews with patients. Thematic inductive analysis was used to analyse the data. Confirmability, credibility and dependability were applied to ensure trustworthiness.

Results: Three focus groups were conducted which involved a total of 26 healthcare professionals. The healthcare professionals who participated in the focus groups included seven (7) physiotherapists, seven (7) occupational therapists, four (4) speech therapists, five (5) registered nurses, two (2) social workers and one (1) dietician. A total of 19 patients with stroke participated in the in-depth interviews. The themes that arose from the focus group discussions with healthcare professionals were “being independent”,“taking responsibility for recovery” and “management of the condition”. Similarly, to the healthcare professionals, the patients also equated self-management with“being independent”. In addition to this, the patients indicated that “accepting assistance from others”was part of self-management.

Conclusions: Both the healthcare professionals and the patients with stroke’s understanding of self-management focussed on the patient’s involvement in their rehabilitation. The patients further referred to the involvement of others in their recovery.

Implications: The successful implementation of self-management strategies would require additional training of healthcare providers, including physiotherapists, to ensure that self-management principles are understood and correctly applied.

Funding acknowledgements: We would like to acknowledge the South African REsearch Foundation for funding the study.

Keywords:
Self-management
Stroke

Topics:
Neurology: stroke
Disability & rehabilitation

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: University of the Western Cape

Committee: Human and Social Science Research Ethics Committee

Ethics number: (HS16/5/40), (HS17/1/51),