Nurse-Led AI-Supported Psychosocial Support for Palliative Caregivers

Primary caregivers of palliative care patients assume responsibility for meeting the patient's needs, monitoring symptoms, maintaining care practices, and managing changing needs. Increased responsibilities, uncertainty, and lack of information and support can negatively impact caregivers' psychosocial adjustment. The aim of this research is to evaluate the impact of a nurse-led, generative artificial intelligence-supported individualized psychosocial support program on the care readiness and psychological resilience levels of primary caregivers of palliative care patients. The six-week program will consist of six modules: adaptation to the care role, understanding care needs and coping with uncertainty, stress and emotion regulation, adaptive coping and problem-solving, self-care and social support, and making sense of the care experience and supporting strengths. Standard content, which will be evaluated with expert opinion, will be individualized according to the caregivers' needs and responses during the program. Generative artificial intelligence will be used as a nurse-supervised psychoeducational support tool within the framework of a validated knowledge base and safety rules. The research will be conducted using a pre-test-post-test, parallel-group randomized controlled experimental design. A total of 88 primary caregivers will be assigned to experimental and control groups in a 1:1 ratio. The control group will receive routine care and information, while the experimental group will receive these in addition to a psychosocial support program. Data will be collected before and immediately after the intervention using the Caregiver Demographic Information Form, the Caregiver Readiness Scale, and the Psychological Resilience Scale for Adults. Additionally, the overall satisfaction levels of participants in the experimental group regarding the program will be evaluated using a scale of 1-10. The findings are expected to provide scientific evidence for the development of individualized nursing interventions that support caregivers' preparation for the caregiving role and their psychological resilience, and for the safe, effective, and human-supervised use of generative artificial intelligence.