“They Just Took Him Out of My Life”: Nursing Home Care Partner Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic
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Author/Creator
Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2022-02-01
Type of Work
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Program
Citation of Original Publication
Kusmaul, Nancy, Vivian J. Miller and Ji Hyang Cheon. “They Just Took Him Out of My Life”: Nursing Home Care Partner Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Gerontological Nursing 48 (Feb. 1, 2022), no. 2. https://doi.org/10.3928/00989134-20220111-02
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Access to this item will begin on 2/1/2023
Access to this item will begin on 2/1/2023
Subjects
Abstract
On March 13, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) closed nursing homes to visitors to protect nursing home residents from COVID-19 and they were closed for a year. There has been limited research on the impacts of this closure on family member/resident dyads. This study describes the impacts of visitation restrictions on residents and their family caregivers from the caregivers’ perspectives. Family members and close friends “care partners” were recruited via social media and email listservs from November 2020 to February 2021. All participants completed a survey on google forms. Researchers completed semi-structured one-on-one interviews with interested participants via Web Ex. Transcripts were analyzed using rapid analysis techniques. Thirty-one family caregivers completed the survey and seventeen completed interviews. The majority of interview participants (n=11) were adult children, the remaining (n=5) were spouses (wives) and a parent whose child was in a nursing home (n=1). They reported experiencing disconnect from their residents, confusion on the part of the residents, and sadness. All family caregivers were of the opinion that their residents with dementia declined during the closure period, which was most notable when they no longer recognized their family caregivers when they were able to see each other again. All family caregiver participants expressed the opinion that they and their residents suffered irreparable harm from the prolonged separation. Providers, policy makers, and researchers must use the lessons learned from COVID-19 in future situations. Protecting residents from a deadly disease is important, but we cannot condone long term separation from family caregivers again.