IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA-BASED (WHATSAPP) PATIENT CARE EDUCATION ON THE RESILIENCE OF FAMILY CAREGIVERS OF BREAST CANCER PATIENTS

Among the critical groups providing services to patients are their family members, relatives, and friends in the breast cancer treatment process. The care provided by family caregivers effectively increases these patients' survival. On the other hand, caregiving burnout also imposes exhausting pressure on caregivers' bodies, minds, and power and negatively impacts their caring role. This study aimed to investigate the effect of patient care education delivered through WhatsApp messenger on the resilience of family caregivers of breast cancer patients in Urmia medical training centers in 2022.

This research was a semi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test design conducted on 60 family caregivers of breast cancer patients in Urmia City. The samples were selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned to two control and test groups. Data collection tools were demographic information questionnaires and Connor Davidson's resilience questionnaire. Finally, the data was analyzed using SPSS ver.22 statistical software. The significance level was less than 0.05.

There was no significant difference in resilience mean scores between control and intervention groups before the intervention (p>0.05). However, there was a significant difference in resilience mean scores of the two groups after the intervention (p<0.05), with higher resilience mean scores in the intervention group than in the control group.

This study showed that virtual training through social networks such as WhatsApp can increase the resilience of family caregivers of people with cancer. Therefore, considering the importance of educational interventions in improving the health level of patients and their caregivers, the managers of medical centers can improve the health level of caregivers and accelerate the recovery process and the quality of life of patients by adopting strategies and an educational program and training workshops in association with training to strengthen resilience.