Importance of personal and professional experience for hospital staff in person-centred dementia care: a cross-sectional interview study using freelisting in a UK hospital ward

Abstract

ObjectiveTo detail how hospital staff with differing personal and professional caregiving experiences approach the care of patients with dementia, in order to make practical recommendations for practice.DesignCross-sectional qualitative interviews.SettingA UK hospital ward providing dementia care.ParticipantsA complete hospital ward staff team, constituting 47 hospital staff from 10 professions.MethodsHospital staff were asked to list their approaches to emotion-focused care in individual, ethnographic freelisting interviews. Cultural consensus analysis was used to detail variations in approaches to dementia care between staff subgroups.Main outcome measuresThe most salient listed descriptions of care emphasised by staff members with personal experience of dementia caregiving when compared with staff members without such experience, and descriptions from staff newer to the profession compared with staff with more years of professional dementia caregiving experience.ResultsSubgroups of hospital staff showed different patterns of responses both in how they noticed the emotional distress of patients with dementia, and in prioritised responses that they deemed to work. Hospital staff with professional experience of dementia caregiving and staff with fewer years of professional experience prioritised mutual communication and getting to know each patient.ConclusionsSubgroups of hospital staff with personal caregiving experiences and fewer years of professional care experience were more likely to describe person-centred care as their routine ways of working with patients with dementia. It is recommended that personal experience and the novice curiosity of hospital staff be considered as valuable resources that exist within multidisciplinary staff teams that could enhance staff training to improve the hospital care for patients with dementia.

The impact of an education intervention on the approach of hospital staff to patients with dementia in a Danish general hospital setting: An explanatory sequential mixed-methods study

“…They argue that this will be beneficial due to the exchange of knowledge and experience and stress that that this can facilitate discussions and interdisciplinary reflections about dementia-friendly routines. 55 Our integrated results suggest that the interdisciplinary focus in the dementia education intervention facilitated an improved awareness of the person with dementia. The ability to approach and see the person behind the dementia diagnosis was exemplified as being more empathic in that it aimed at accessing and recognizing the patient's emotional attitude based on the common foundation of increased outcome scores.…”

“…This commitment to participate in interdisciplinary cooperation was regarded as a unique result of the education intervention as it assisted the setting aside of professional boundaries and replaced it with a culture of helping, guiding, and reminding each other across occupations and seniority. This additional element of commitment of dementia education interventions in hospital settings is also stressed by Petty et al., 55 who found that dementia care and treatment in hospitals requires the incorporation of different levels of seniority and a variety of professions in dementia education planning. They argue that this will be beneficial due to the exchange of knowledge and experience and stress that that this can facilitate discussions and interdisciplinary reflections about dementia-friendly routines.…”

“…They argue that this will be beneficial due to the exchange of knowledge and experience and stress that that this can facilitate discussions and interdisciplinary reflections about dementia-friendly routines. 55…”

Improving emotional well-being for hospital-based patients with dementia

“…These can be shared through computerised systems and made easily accessible (Griffiths et al, 2014). As another example, expertise of staff members, including expertise of multidisciplinary colleagues and knowledge that staff have developed through building personal relationships with people with dementia, can be shared through experiential learning (Griffiths et al, 2014, Handley et al, 2017, Petty et al, 2019. Teambased learning where staff members share good practice, reflect and turn to each other for support when needed, have been recommended for nursing practice (Bridges et al, 2017).…”