本研究的目的是深入探討以家庭為重心之重病老年疾患主要照顧者的壓力源和影響 家庭功能因素，進而尋出社會醫療因應措施。研究者以公共衛生護士之身分，採參與性觀察 和半結構式訪談指引收集資料，然後將訪談期間主要照顧者所表達的語言和非語言行為，寫 成敘述體的行為過程記錄，再以內容分析法分析其類目，並比較其差異性。 根據本研究發現，主要照顧者的家庭功能愈高，其主要照顧者使用趨向性適應行為頻率 愈高，相對地使用逃避性適應行為的頻率愈低，並主要照顧者對被照顧事件的看法愈偏順受， 其主要受下列三方面因素影響：社會支持、主要照顧者對被照顧者之看法、和主要照顧者的 壓力源。研究中發現，主要照顧者長期照顧下易造成身心疲潰，所以社會醫療資源需多樣性 的讓民眾選擇，以減輕主要照顧者的負擔。

　　　　　Our research studies the factors related to family function and stressors for caregivers caring for the elderly with serious disease. The goal is to discover good methods of caring for the elderly. The researchers used semistructured questionnaires administered by public health nurses to gather data. The researchers also used content analysis to find categories and compare differences in the responses. The study shows that when the family function score is higher, the caregiver uses more appropriate coping behaviors. Also, the caregiver's perception of caregiving is related to the following three factors: social supports, the caregiver's mental image of the elderly person, and the caregiver's stressors. The caregivers complain that they can't find a quality nursing home or that they can't afford the price of nursing home care. The main stressor of caregivers is that they are too tired to care for the elderly for a long time. The caregivers have no alternate way to release their burden of caring for the elderly. In Taiwan, medical social services must establish multiple long-term care facilities to enable the caregivers to release their burden.