School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern, Ireland.
BMC Med Educ. 2023 Aug 7;23(1):555. doi: 10.1186/s12909-023-04561-1.
Dementia awareness is a key priority of medical and nursing pre-registration education. The 'dementia friends' programme is an internationally recognised and accredited dementia awareness workshop that is led by a trained facilitator. While this programme has been associated with positive outcomes, few studies have examined how medical and nursing students apply their learning in practice after the workshop. The aim of his study was to explore how nursing and medical students apply the dementia friend's programme into practice when caring for people living with dementia.
Seven focus-group interviews were conducted with 36 nursing students and 14 medical students at one university in Northern Ireland (n = 50), following 'the dementia friends programme. Interview guides were co-designed alongside people living with dementia. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. Ethical approval was granted for this study.
Four themes emerged: 'reframing dementia', which highlighted how the education had enabled students to actively empower and support people living with dementia in practice; 'dementia friendly design', which focused on how students had modified their clinical environments when providing care for people living with dementia, 'creative communication', which considered how students had used their education to adapt their verbal and non-verbal communication with people living with dementia and 'realities of advanced dementia' which contemplated how students believed their dementia education could be improved within their current curriculum.
The Dementia Friends programme has actively supported nursing and medical students to improve the lives of people with dementia in their care through environmental adaptions and creative approaches to communication. This study provides an evidence base that supports the provision of 'a dementia friends programme to healthcare professional students. The study also highlights how this education can actively influence how nursing and medical students support people living with dementia in their practice in the months and years after education.
痴呆症意识是医学和护理预注册教育的关键重点。“痴呆症朋友”计划是一个国际认可和认可的痴呆症意识研讨会，由经过培训的主持人领导。虽然该计划与积极的结果相关，但很少有研究探讨医学和护理学生在研讨会结束后如何将学习应用于实践。本研究旨在探讨护理和医学学生在照顾患有痴呆症的人时如何将“痴呆症朋友”计划应用于实践。
在北爱尔兰的一所大学（n=50）对 36 名护理学生和 14 名医学学生进行了 7 次焦点小组访谈，这些学生在参加“痴呆症朋友计划”后参加了访谈。访谈指南与痴呆症患者共同设计。访谈进行了录音、逐字转录，并使用主题分析进行了分析。本研究获得了伦理批准。
出现了四个主题：“重新定义痴呆症”，这突出了教育如何使学生能够在实践中积极为痴呆症患者提供支持和支持；“痴呆症友好设计”，重点关注学生在为痴呆症患者提供护理时如何修改他们的临床环境；“创造性沟通”，考虑学生如何利用他们的教育来调整他们与痴呆症患者的言语和非言语沟通；“晚期痴呆症的现实”，考虑学生认为他们的痴呆症教育如何在他们目前的课程中得到改进。
“痴呆症朋友”计划积极支持护理和医学学生通过环境适应和创造性的沟通方式来改善他们护理的痴呆症患者的生活。这项研究提供了支持向医疗保健专业学生提供“痴呆症朋友计划”的证据基础。该研究还强调了这种教育如何积极影响护理和医学学生在教育结束后的数月和数年内如何在实践中支持痴呆症患者。
