A comparative study of dementia knowledge, attitudes and care approach among Chinese nursing and medical students

Abstract

Background Dementia care requires inter-disciplinary collaboration starting from formal health professional education. Yet, little is known about how undergraduate medical and nursing students perceive dementia care in China. The aim of this study was to investigate undergraduate medical and nursing students’ dementia knowledge, attitudes and care approach in China. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted. Students enrolled in a 5-year Bachelor of Medicine Program and a 4-year Bachelor of Nursing Program from four universities with campuses across Eastern, Western, Southern and Northern China were recruited into the study. Three validated instruments, Alzheimer’s Disease Knowledge Scale (ADKS), Dementia Care Attitude Scale (DCAS) and Approach to Advanced Dementia Care Questionnaire (ADCQ), were used to examine students’ dementia knowledge, attitudes and perceived care approach. Data were collected using a self-administered survey. Results The number of medical and nursing students completing the survey was 526 and 467 respectively. Students’ overall knowledge about dementia was poor, but attitudes were generally positive. The overall mean score of students’ dementia knowledge examined by the ADKS was 19.49 (SD = 2.82) out of 30, students’ attitudes to dementia was 29.92(SD = 3.35) out of 40, and students’ person-centred care approach of dementia was 5.42 (SD = 2.20) out of 13. Medical students demonstrated higher dementia knowledge scores and showed less positive attitude scores than nursing students (p < 0.05). Students would not apply a person-centred care approach. There were no statistically significant differences in the mean scores of ADCQ between nursing students and medical students. Conclusions Study results highlight the urgent need to implement an inter-disciplinary approach to increasing dementia education among Chinese medical and nursing students, and ensuring that students have adequate knowledge, attitudes and experience in the care of people with dementia.

Nursing students’ knowledge about behavioral and biopsychosocial domains of dementia: A cross‐sectional survey study

“…The mean DKAS score of nursing students in the present study has a similar trend to those of the Tasmanian students' scores (Eccleston et al, 2015), in that the students have fair knowledge about dementia (52%). However, the mean DKAS score of nursing students is considerably lower than that of the Maltese nursing students (Scerri & Scerri, 2013) and Chinese nursing students (Wang et al, 2020). Possible reasons for this result might attribute to dementiaspecific education in these countries that stress the need for improved dementia-related knowledge and skills among nursing students and the increased training hours to care for people with dementia during their clinical practice (Smyth et al, 2013).…”

“…Many researchers evaluated students' knowledge about dementia in developed countries (Scerri & Scerri, 2013;Wang et al, 2020).…”

“…Identifying nursing students’ level of knowledge about dementia is paramount for developing further measures to enhance the standards of dementia care (Carpenter et al., 2011). Promoting an accurate understanding of dementia early on in nursing education can help eliminate stereotypes about dementia and improve community awareness about this vulnerable population (Smyth et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2020). Improving dementia education by integrating sufficient theoretical and clinical knowledge in nursing curricula is important in providing high‐quality and cost‐effective healthcare for patients with dementia (Evripidou et al., 2018; Mabbott, 2013; Rozier et al., 2017).…”

“…Many researchers evaluated students' knowledge about dementia in developed countries (Scerri & Scerri, 2013; Wang et al., 2020). Still, the existing studies have not yet considered all aspects of dementia knowledge, including etiologies of dementia, how people with dementia engage with the community, care considerations, risk of developing dementia, and strategies for prevention and health promotion (Basri et al., 2017; Eshbaugh, 2014; Evripidou et al., 2018).…”

Correction to: A comparative study of dementia knowledge, attitudes and care approach among Chinese nursing and medical students

“…Following publication of the original article [ 1 ], we have been informed that the author Rong Huang was incorrectly affiliated to “College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia”…”