The development of a supportive nursing model for Leprosy patient, Rajprachasamasai Institue.

Abstract

     This action research aimed to: (1) examine problems in palliative nursing care for leprosy patients with dependency, (2) develop a palliative nursing care model, and (3) evaluate the implementation of the developed model. The participants consisted of 10 leprosy patients with dependency and 25 professional nurses and multidisciplinary team members, selected through purposive sampling. Research instruments included in-depth interview guides, a model implementation checklist, a model acceptance and satisfaction questionnaire, and quality of life assessment tools, namely the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS), the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (2Q), and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (9Q). Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis.

     The findings revealed that: (1) the developed palliative nursing care model for leprosy patients with dependency at Raj Prachasamasai Institute, termed the LIFES 2C B Model, comprised Living Will (expression of care goals), Function (activities of daily living care), Emotion and Coping (psychological care), Symptoms (physical symptom management), Coordinated care (interdisciplinary collaboration), Continuing Bonds (end-of-life care), and Bereavement (family care after death); (2) professional nurses and multidisciplinary team members reported very high levels of acceptance and satisfaction with the use of the model; and (3) quality of life assessments of leprosy patients with dependency showed that, prior to model implementation, overall scores across all assessment domains were poor,