Competence for home health care in colombian people with chronic ilness and their caregivers

Abstract

Background. The competence for home health care is part of the fundamental features required when taking care of people with chronic disease. It is described as the ability, the skill and the preparation the user or their family caregiver possesses in order to perform the work of caring. Objective. To describe and compare the competence for home health care in Colombian people with chronic illness and their family caregivers in the different regions of Colombia. Materials and Methods. Quantitative, descriptive, comparative and cross-sectional study conducted between 2012 and 2014 in the five geographical regions of Colombia. The sample consists of 2231 participants including people with chronic illness and family caregivers. The measurement instruments used were the Survey for the characterization of the caring Dyad patient - family caregiver GCPC-UN-D, and the Home health care competence instrument “GCPCUN- CPC”, both in its patient and family caregiver versions. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the home health care competence. For comparison of the groups nonparametric tests for independent samples were used. Results. People with chronic illness and their family caregivers have heterogeneous levels of home health caring competence in the different regions of Colombia. In both cases the higher levels are found in the Amazon region, while the lowest are found in the Pacific region. These levels of home health care competence are far away from the required ones to ensure quality and safety in the care of these patients. Conclusion. The indicators for the evaluation of home health care competence must address patients and their family caregiver as well as the health human talent, health institutions and the Social Security System in order to understand in a better way and change the current vulnerability in home health care practices in the country. © 2015, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. All rights reserved.