Impaired housekeeping: nursing diagnosis in relatives of hospitalized patients with chronic ailments

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the nursing diagnosis “impaired housekeeping” in relatives under the condition of caregivers of hospitalized patients with chronic illnesses. A descriptive research was conducted from January to June 2006, in a large hospital in the Midwest Region of Brazil, involving 12 families. Impaired housekeeping was identified in 8 families which had as most frequent related factors: illness of a family member (100%), lack of home organization (75%), insufficient financial resources (62.5%). The most frequent defining characteristics were: family members expressed difficulties in comfortably performing their housekeeping (62.5%); family members ask for help for housekeeping (62.5%) and a family member overloaded (daughter), 62.5%. This diagnosis affects families, demonstrating the need for nurses to use knowledge and technologies of assessment and intervention in families, along with the standardized languages for express its diagnoses, intervention and outcomes.

Descriptors: Family; Family nursing; Nursing diagnosis.