The Development of an Elderly Care Competency Model for Caregivers at Tambon Pamamuong, Aumphur Muaengtak ,Tak Province

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a model for the elderly care competency of caregivers. The research was conducted in three steps:1) study the caregivers’ need of elderly care competencies by analyzing and synthesizing the data obtained from the related documents, survey , focus groups, and interviews of 30 caregivers and 5 experts ;2) construct an elderly care competency model by using self-efficacy enhancing program validated by 5 experts; 3)implement and evaluate the draft of elderly care competency model for 12 weeks. The instruments included questionnaires, in-depth interviews, focus groups interview, competency test, satisfaction survey, and practice evaluation. Data were analyzed using content analysis, descriptive statistics of percentage, mean, standard deviations , median , inter-quartile and interferential statistics of paired t-test for dependent group. The results demonstrated that: 1) the caregivers’ need for elderly care competency was composed of 6 competencies including elderly hypertension care and vital sign measuring , food and nutrition, exercise , daily routine support, environment and communication; 2) the development of an elderly care competency model consisted of principles, objectives, contents, and the self-efficacy enhancing program which was effective in raising the competency levels of caregivers in all aspects after the model implementation at statistical significance of .05. It was also found that the caregivers were satisfied with the elderly care competency development at the highest level ( = 4.63, S.D. = 0.453). Therefore, the model can be utilized in developing the caregivers’ elderly care competency effectively.