Abstract:
This study is qualitative and phenomenological research that aimed to study the family and taking care patterns in the families with children who underwent a liver transplantation at Ramathibodi Hospital. The informants were the parents or primary caregivers from 19 families who were taking care of a live-transplanted child under 6 years of age that were discharged from the hospital more than 6 months before the time of the study and that had continued his or her treatment at the same hospital thereafter. Data collection was carried out through in-depth interviews and from audio records of the interviews. Content analysis was employed in data processing. The results showed that 58% of the sample came from an extended family, and 89% of informants and 79% of primary caregivers were mothers of the children. In 68.4% of the studied families, both parents were involved in the decision making for the undergoing of liver-transplantation, and 63.2% of liver doners were the mothers. All families with liver-transplanted children were affected to a certain degree in terms of daily living and economic status. Based on this and coupled with other impacts on the families, the family patterns could be classified into two types: 1) Adjustable family pattern, in which the families were able to cope with the crisis appropriately and suffered a slight impact, most families with this pattern type (83.3%) were single families; and 2) Nonadjustable family pattern, in which the families failed to adjust and encounter the crisis appropriately, which resulted in psychological and emotional impacts, poor family relationship, high level of stress in family, and most familes with the pattern of this type (77%) were extended families. Based on the health condition of liver-transplanted children, the taking care pattern could be categorized into two types: 1) Socially supported taking care pattern, in which the liver-transplanted children had only a mild complication and had a normal nutritional status; and 2) Non-socially supported taking care pattern, in which the mothers were the only primary caregivers without assistance from their relatives, which contributed to frequent complications and under-nutritional status. The results from this research would inform the development of instructions for the families of the children that will undergo a liver-transplantation to ensure that the family members would engage in the provision of care continuously throughout the pre- and postliver- transplantation periods. The study results also suggest that it is essential for the families to seek more information regarding how to take care of liver-transplanted children after they are discharged from the hospital.