As the population continues to age, more and more families are faced with caring for aging
family members and the concurrent increase in stress and needs brought about by hospitalization
of the aging family member. The social service staff at Wesley Woods Genatnc Hospital wished
to evaluate their services and explore the impact of a family conference conducted by a social
worker/registered nurse team on the needs experienced by the family members of patients in
psychiatry and neuropsychiatry units. A search of the current literature, however, revealed a lack
of reliable and valid instruments designed to measure the perceived needs of caregivers of
hospitalized geriatric patients. Therefore, the development of an instrument that could measure
the perceived psychoeducational needs of such caregivers was undertaken. The Needs Inventory
for Caregivers of Hospitalized Elders (NICHE) was field-tested and supportfor the instrument 's
validity and reliability was found.
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