Effectiveness of Nursing Intervention Based on Family Empowerment Model on Burden of Care and Self-Efficacy for Caregivers of Children with Autism Disorder

: Background : Autism disorders lead to significant disability and pressure on affected children and their families. Autism is an interrelated and complex developmental disability, a disorder of thinking and cognition, impaired of verbal and nonverbal communication, and limited self-care skills. Therefore, diagnosis of a child with autism is a shock to the family members, because of the needs, the problems suffered from, burden of care, health and psychiatric conditions, and impact of self-efficacy for caregivers. Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of nursing intervention based on family empowerment model on burden of care and self-efficacy for caregivers of children with autism disorder. Design: A Quasi-experimental design (one group pre-post) was selected for conducting this study. Setting: This study was conducted in Psychiatric Outpatient Clinics at Benha University Hospital, Benha Teaching Hospital and Psychiatric and Addiction Hospital in Benha at Qalyubia Governorate, Egypt. The study s ample involves fifty six family caregivers and their children with autism who were selected using a purposive sampling technique. Tools : Four tools for data collection were used, tool I: an interviewing questionnaire to assess; Socio demographic characteristics for the caregiver, personal characteristics of the autistic child, medical history of the disease, and caregiver’s knowledge regarding autism; Tool II” Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living (ADL); Tool III: Zarit Burden interviewing questionnaire, Tool IV: General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE). The intervention consisted of 8 sessions. Results: The study results showed that there were highly statistically significant positive correlations between caregivers' total knowledge, total burden of care, and total self-efficacy post program implementation, (P<0.001). Also, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between caregivers' total knowledge and children' with autism total independency (P<0.05). Conclusion: The results concluded that nursing intervention based on family empowerment model showed positive impact and effective improvement in burden of care and self-efficacy of parents of children with autism. As well as the caregivers' knowledge regarding autism improved after utilized of the nursing intervention program. Recommendation: The study recommended that application of nursing intervention based on family empowerment model in all governorates of Egypt in order to improve the awareness of parents and caregivers regarding autism, burden of care, and self-efficacy.