Course Overview

This course was designed to help nurses and other health professionals understand the care experience from the viewpoint of the person living with dementia.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this course, staff should be able to:

• Explain the neuropsychological basis for changed behaviour.
• Identify how dementia-related damage to cortical structures may impact patient behaviour.
• Identify the symptoms of delirium and how they compare with dementia and may overlay those of dementia.
• Explain how applying the principles of person-centred care (PCC) can improve the quality of care for people with dementia.
• Describe the communication changes associated with dementia and strategies to facilitate communication and enhance understanding for the person with dementia.
• Describe information gathering techniques and simple bedside tests about the patient’s personal history and current functional status that can assist in providing care.
• Explain pain and pain assessment in the context of dementia and recognise the links between pain and changed behaviour.
• Identify methods to select suitable activities to meaningfully engage a person with dementia while in hospital, as a key therapeutic care intervention.
• Identify psychosocial and physical factors in the hospital environment that could be changed using environmental design principles to improve the wellbeing and quality of care of people with dementia.
• Describe how to observe, assess and document function and behaviour in the acute care setting over time.
• Describe how to plan care and implement evidence-based strategies (non-pharmacological and pharmacological) that will lead to optimal care for patients with any form of cognitive impairment.