Family Caregiver Training During Medicare Home Health Care: Clinician Perspectives

During Medicare home health care, providers often rely on family caregivers to help meet patients’ care needs. Beginning in 2018, CMS requires home health agencies to provide training to family caregivers. This qualitative study is the first research to examine current patterns of family caregiver training, and related facilitators and barriers, during Medicare-funded home health care. We conducted semi-structured key informant interviews with home health nurses and physical therapists (n=19) from 4 diverse agencies, then performed thematic analysis of interview transcripts using a hybrid inductive and deductive coding approach. Clinicians described family caregiver education as a dynamic and cyclical process: simultaneously providing patient care, training family caregivers, and gathering additional information about patient needs and caregiver capabilities, then adjusting the care plan accordingly. We present a model of this cyclic process and describe its four major stages: Initial Assessment, Education, Reassessment, and Adjustment. Additionally, clinicians identified a range of structural, individual, and interpersonal factors which impact their ability to successfully train family caregivers. We define each factor and, using illustrative quotes from our interviews, elucidate its role as a facilitator and/or barrier to clinicians’ educational efforts. Findings provide the first model of caregiver training during home health care and highlight policy and practice changes to better support clinicians in these efforts; including greater visit flexibility, access to more experienced clinical mentors, and standardized caregiver assessment tools designed for this unique care setting.