Effects of a nurse-led therapeutic conversations intervention in stroke patient–family caregiver dyads

Background: Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of family functional care interventions among stroke caregiver dyads. This study aimed to examine the effect of a nurse-led therapeutic conversation intervention on resilience, family function, self-efficacy in managing the disease, and quality of life (QoL) in stroke family caregiver dyads. Aims: This study aimed to examine the effect of a nurse-led therapeutic conversation intervention on resilience, family function, self-efficacy in managing the disease, and QoL in stroke–family caregiver dyads. Design: This study was a single-blind (evaluator) randomized controlled trial. The planned execution time was from August 2021 to December 2022, in the rehabilitation ward of a medical university hospital. Methods: A total of 82 dyads were included in this analysis. Dyads randomized to the intervention group received nurse-led therapeutic conversations intervention one at four weeks after the patient's hospitalization for a stroke. The family caregiver dyads of stroke survivors in the control group received routine care. An effectiveness analysis that included patients' resilience, self-efficacy, and patient–family caregiver dyads' family function and QoL was conducted at one month. We used the CONSORT Checklist for reporting parallel group randomized trials in this study. Results: The patients in the intervention group showed improvement in resilience and self-efficacy after one month. Furthermore, the effects on resilience (Cohen's d = 0.49) and self-efficacy (Cohen's d = 0.46) were significantly higher than in the control group. Family functioning was significantly higher in patient–family caregiver dyads in the intervention group than in the control group (Cohen's d = 0.55; Cohen's d = 0.50). However, no significant difference in QoL was found between patients and caregivers in either group. Conclusions: The intervention was effective in promoting family functioning and can also promote patient resilience and self-efficacy in disease management. However, the intervention did not have a significant effect on the QoL of patient–family caregiver dyads.