Evaluation of care burden, coping with family stressors and problem solving skills of parents of patients with tracheostomy

<bold>Introduction:</bold> We aimed to evaluate the care burden, problem solving and stress coping skills of parents of patients. <bold>Materials and Methods:</bold> Demographic, clinical, follow-up data of patients were recorded from medical records. 'Zarit Caregiving Burden Scale', 'Methods of Coping with Family Stressors Scale', 'Problem Solving Inventory' were applied to the parents. <bold>Results:</bold> 40 patients were included in the study. The current age was 108.53(11-257) months, 57.5% were female. The caregiver was the mother in 80%, the mother and father in 20%. 37.5% of the mothers had mild, 52.5% moderate, 10% severe care burden. 75% of the fathers had mild, 7.5% moderate, 17.5% no care burden. According to the subscale scores of coping with family stressors, it was found that parents had low levels of coping with stressors in terms of seeking social support [(2.98±1.28),(2.41±1.31)], relaxation exercises [(2.54±1.18),(2.82±1.06)] and physical exercises [(1.61±0.91),(2.42±1.21)]. The care burden of mothers with chronic diseases was found to be higher. It was found that as the care burden score of the mothers increased, their levels of coping with stress in terms of improving their skills, changing behaviour, relaxation exercises, unity and solidarity decreased. In the group where the caregivers were mothers and fathers, it was observed that mothers made less work-family separation, fathers had a more hasty approach, less social support (p<0.05). The mothers, fathers had moderate problem solving skills. <bold>Discussion:</bold> Mothers had a higher care burden than fathers. Parents need social support to cope with the stress caused by the burden of caring.