Sundaran Kada

Staff attitudes towards institutionalised dementia residents.

AIM To explore the attitudes of staff caring for institutionalised dementia residents and the variables associated with these attitudes. METHODS Fourteen nursing homes and one hospital-based geriatric ward in Bergen, Norway were surveyed, using the translation of an Approach to Dementia Questionnaire. The study population (n = 291) was a mixture of registered nurses, auxiliary nurses, nursing assistants and non-trained aides. DESIGN Survey. RESULTS Significant differences in hope and person-centred attitudes were identified in this study. Nursing assistants, compared with registered nurses (p = 0.02), had significantly lower hope attitudes. Staff over 50 years of age reported significantly lower hope attitudes (p = 0.01) than those under 40 years of age. Staff with 10 and fewer years of work experience reported significantly lower hope attitudes (p = 0.02) than those with more than 10 years of experience. Nurses with specialised training in geriatrics, psychiatry or dementia care had significantly higher hope attitudes, compared with nurses without any special training (p = 0.04). The person-centred attitude was lower among participants who were over 50 years old, compared with their counterparts under the age of 40 (p < or = 0.01). DISCUSSION Education, age, work experience, care unit size and specialised training are associated with differences in attitudes. We recommend that employers be proactive in encouraging and facilitating staff development by offering further training that aims to impart more positive attitudes. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Improvements in staff competency levels will be more important in the future, as a result of the forecasted increase in the percentage of the population who will suffer from dementia and reside in nursing homes.

Knowledge of Alzheimer's Disease among Norwegian Undergraduate Health and Social Care Students: A Survey Study.

With an aging general population and a concurrent increase in the prevalence of dementia, health and social care professional students are increasingly exposed to this group of patients during their clinical placements and after graduation. A sound dementia-related knowledge base among health and social care students is important in providing high-quality dementia care. The present study assessed dementia-related knowledge in health and social care students. The Alzheimers Disease Knowledge Scale (ADKS) was utilized to measure the level of dementia knowledge. A total of 321 undergraduate students from various disciplines in their final years of study, but prior to graduation, participated in this study. The study identified a moderate dementia knowledge base (mean score: 23.51 out of 30) among health and social care students. The results revealed that the students were also ignorant of many facts and had many misconceptions pertaining to Alzheimers Disease (AD). In addition, significant differences in knowledge were evident between student groups. These results suggest that the current dementia curriculum should be evaluated in an attempt to improve the dementia knowledge base of health and social care students.