Research Process & Design Analysis
Across the world, the ageing population is increasing with estimates of reaching high numbers in the coming years, with prospects like having an estimate of 83.7 million, specifically in the United States of America. There are serious consequences that come with such an increasing population of the ageing people ranging from economic challenges to the social aspect of life and their welfare. The higher the number of aged people, the high the risk of having challenging restrictions and challenges such as having a higher number of health care issues to handle especially when it comes to chronic diseases, mental health issues, mental health issues and also a growing percentage of dependency on other people. The potential challenges of ageing people, therefore rotate towards their well-being as a factor of need and costly to maintain emotionally, and economically. The need for caregiving required by the increasing population of the ageing people has, therefore become a critical factor in the society which draws my interests in the topic. With older people having reduced physical activity, chronic and mental health issues have become a harbor for most of their health issues. Caregiving in this aspect, therefore tends to be critical to mental and physical sensitivity. The number and nature of people involved in caregiving is, therefore, a very important factor to consider in society with such a rising number of the ageing population. The potential of caregivers, the impact of their nature, and the influence that the caring process has on both parties are some of the critical factors examined in the research under review. Physical, financial and emotional factors of caregiving analyzed in the research present the best concepts of caregiving, the parties involved and how it generally impacts on the ageing population and the country in general.
Summary
According to the research, 31% of the caregivers confirmed of it being a stressful process, ratings of the caregivers’ sampling reports showed that 47% of the ageing population was also made up of people with poor or fair health status. There are similar characteristics among these ageing people that establish effects on the caregivers such as burnouts, being stripped off of their compassionate prospects with intolerance and lack of patience as well as traumatic stress. The research utilizes the Stamm’s Professional Quality of Life Scale method known as ProQOL to analyze the fatigue and satisfaction elements of compassion that arise among a number of stipulated caregiver categories which are; formal and employed caregivers, spouses and partners who act as caregivers and adult children who are also obliged to caregiving for their parents. The research has a sample of 87 adults studied in a period of 6 months and longer which makes it a valid source of decision making in terms of care, but not strong enough to discover in-depth factors that could be involved with the changing lifestyles and the evolution of the American society. According to the research, among the three categories, the professional and formal caregivers had higher scores for compassion satisfaction compared to the other two categories as well as having significantly lower levels of compassion fatigue when compared to the child caregivers. Scores that are strong enough to convince the families of ageing people into adopting the idea of having professional caregivers to aid them in the journey despite the homogeneity. The research also puts forth an established ground for studying and researching on factors that influence the high compassion satisfaction and decrease in fatigue experienced by the formal caregivers which could be of assistance to the family caregivers categories.
The choice of categories of caregivers comprehensively targets the entire caregiving prospects in the society, with the division between both adult children and spouse caregivers playing an important role in reflecting the nature of family caregivers in two perspectives. The sampling mainly chooses participants in the Midwest but not exclusive to that area. There is not much diversification in that sector. Still, the demographics of the Midwest could not have very significant and varying results with other areas across the USA as compared to having the research conducted in a particular state only (Stamm, 2010). The sampling recruitment is done through both online and offline material which allows for the establishment of a large number of prospective participants. The techniques applied, such as referrals, however, could reduce the levels of diversity in terms of covering a larger region with the research.
The methodology of conducting the survey, however, inconveniences the caregivers in the spouse category of ageing partners who are not well conversant with the internet and probability of that inconvenience leading to variance in the results achieved (Stephanie et al., 2019). The process of including and informed consent and ensuring that participants provide some of the critical information such as their age, education and income levels could aid more research on how these elements could affect their capacity towards giving care. The research study used involves quantitative survey research designed to be conducted online using the ProQOL tool developed by Stamm applying the 5-point Likert scale in measuring both the compassion fatigue and satisfaction elements (Stamm, 2010). Having the survey conducted online leads to the questioning of the reliability of the participants provided, as well as cuts off a huge number of prospective participants who would have taken the test. However, the tool and methodology of setting the interview questions are good enough to create a diversified prospect of analyzing the data and coming up with several conclusions that would assist in the development decisions that can be helpful to caregivers and families with ageing members.
Using the alpha reliability analysis procedure of Cronbach, the research examines the reliability levels of the study made with assumptions that the coefficient was greater than or equivalent to (. 70). With that assumption and format, the dependent variables of compassion and fatigue provided sufficient reliabilities with the former recording (. 907) and the latter (. 845) with an additional finding of (. 831) on secondary traumatic stress (Stephanie et al., 2019). According to the established results, these variables were sufficiently reliable and with the use of an updated version of (SPSS) The Statistical Package for Social Sciences, to further analyze the data, made the result analysis a comprehensive process of establishing good findings. Having quantitative research methodologies of data analysis in the study led to the establishment of clearly defined findings, discussion points and conclusions.
The research establishments of the study layout a foundation of more research studies on a number of factors that can be of importance in analyzing ways in which the ageing population can be taken care of without posing a lot of challenges to family caregivers (Stephanie et al., 2019). The influence of the caregiving process, the amount of economic and emotional investment required of the family members, is established as a distinguishing factor between their category and the professional caregivers’ category. With a clear analysis, however, the research can establish conclusions that add value to the focus and direction of analyzing the nature of caregiving to the ageing population.
Conclusion of the study
The quality of professionals involved in care provision for the aged has been growing interest in the society with the highly demanding nature of the aged in terms of health care, physical and mental capabilities. The research aimed at establishing a good understanding of the compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction elements of a broad category of caregivers which aids in understanding establishing the quality of caregivers that are professionals in comparison with the family ones. With the findings revealing that a higher burnout and fatigue was mainly expressed by the spouse and partner caregivers and the adult children caregivers when compared to the professional ones, there was an establishment of the need to understand the experience of caregiving provided by the three categories (Stephanie et al., 2019). The other conclusion is on placing further research needs to establish the understanding of the well-being of not only the elderly but also that of the caregivers, the interrelations between the two and the impact it has on the amount of compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue as well as the secondary induced stress. The research concludes that the wellbeing of the caregivers is as important as the wellbeing of the ageing members who require care and has an effect on the quality of their care. The caregivers, therefore, need to manage their self-care routines, ensure that they receive adequate support as well as communicate their needs to manage their care and receive adequate support for their needs.
Analysis of the Conclusion
The understanding of motivating factors for the professional caregivers as indicated in conclusion is critical to the process of ensuring that in the future when the ageing population hits high numbers, the burdened fatigue and decreased compassion for the family caregivers can be revolutionized to reduce the burden in many families that can easily be projected to the aged population. What the conclusion does not analyze is the correlation between the fatigue, burn out and secondary stress factors and the influence they could have on the care process and wellbeing of the aged people under care. The rights of the ageing population are easily neglected, causing them to be a minority in American society when it comes to receiving the required care. In most cases, they are associated with being a burden and with their healthcare being poor, they easily could end up dying or in critical conditions due to poor caregiver qualities. Their mental health and related chronic diseases also tend to increase, and all these factors could be associated with the caregiving aspects that are not majorly tackled in the research. The conclusions are very helpful in recommending follow up research activity that could establish better prospects to guide the caregiving process of the aged in American society.