TABLE 1.
Codes, related themes and frequency of use across participants
| Code | Definition | Code frequency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caregiver | Patient | ||
|
Family Support Theme: Engaging the support of friends and family |
Support from friends and/or family members, neighbours, religious organisations, or other organisations or community members includes (but is not limited to) getting groceries, delivering medical supplies, providing transportation, and offering advice and emotional support that ultimately lessens the burden on the caregiver | 16 | 16 |
|
Modifications Theme: Increased responsibilities |
Big and small changes that are required to assist the care recipient with their physical health needs and overall care management. This may include changes in the caregiver's job status (hours worked or being able to work at all), alterations in everyday chores, or adjustments to the living space | 16 | 15 |
|
Emotional Coping Theme: Managing emotions |
The caregiver's expression of feelings (sadness, anxiety, worry, motivation, hope, etc.) about their responsibilities and the care recipient's health. Also, include what they are doing to deal with them. This can be a wide range of emotional coping strategies that the caregiver adopts to adjust to his/her new role and lifestyle | 16 | 10 |
|
Precautions Theme: Attention to infection control |
Changes in behaviour to prevent catching or spreading COVID‐19 | 15 | 15 |
|
Independence Theme: Addressing patient independence |
A care recipient or caregiver asserting their ability to manage care needs on their own | 12 | 12 |
|
Ancillary support Theme: Engaging Support Services |
Support services provided by medical providers such as home care, therapy or monetary coverage ultimately lessen the burden of the caregiver | 10 | 10 |
| Wishes a | The expression of not having enough quality, quantity, or sufficient amount of assistance (such as financial, medical, emotional or social), information, or communication that will enable one to function or act optimally as a caregiver | 12 | 14 |
| DecisionMaker | The decision‐related roles and tasks that the caregiver adopts, due to the care recipient's temporary cognitive impairment caused by COVID‐19 | 14 | 9 |
| CareComm | Caregiver's active role in advocating for care recipient's needs through communication and coordination with the health care team. Includes any communication between the caregiver and the health team regarding updates on the care recipient's status | 10 | 6 |
| Inside support | Any support that gives the caregiver an advantage by having direct or indirect access to someone inside the healthcare system who can provide information or access to resources, or contact with the care recipient, reduces the burden on the caregiver | 8 | 7 |
| Spiritual support | The degree to which a caregiver experiences or verbalises a connection to a higher power (i.e., God or other transcendent force) that the caregiver feels is actively supporting, protecting, guiding, helping, and healing | 9 | 1 |
| Stigma | A mark of disgrace or shame associated with those who have had or currently have COVID‐19. This leads to different treatment from others including shunning | 6 | 6 |
| Tech | Caregiver's adjustments to utilising computers, tablets, telephones, and other types of technology in different ways to care for the CR | 3 | 1 |
a
Though there was a large frequency of occurrence, the wishes code was ultimately dropped from inclusion in the analysis as it was related to a specific interview question in which participants were asked what support they wished they had received. Based on the responses, we decided that there was ultimately little relevance to the adaptive experience of caregivers.