Description

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Goal: To provide an overview of depressive symptoms and health promotion behaviors in African-American women caregivers of patients on hemodialysis.

Objectives:

1. Explain how being a caregiver for a family member with ESRD can lead to stress, burden, and poor health outcomes.
2. Discuss the depressive symptoms often found in African-American women caregivers of family members with ESRD or other chronic disease.
3. Identify examples of how nephrology nurses can help promote healthy behaviors and support for family caregivers of patients with ESRD.

Authors' Note: The primary study was funded by Beta Theta Chapter at-large, Sigma Theta Tau International, Inc. and The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, College of Nursing, and was done in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctorate of Nursing Practice Degree awarded to Tammara Harris Beard from The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN.

Statement of Disclosure: The authors reported no actual or potential conflict of interest in relation to this continuing nursing education activity.