This project was undertaken jointly with fellow trainee Niamh Shanahan. It focuses on the field of dementia care research and consists of three parts. Firstly, the literature review aimed to evaluate measures assessing subjective psychological factors in dementia care staff. A systematic search identified 28 dementia care staff measures fulfilling a set of inclusion criteria. The measures covered seven domains: Attitudes, Coping, Job-satisfaction, Job Strain, Perception of Care Recipient's Behaviour and Needs, Sense of Competence, and Views about Falling. Using a methodical evaluation framework the review highlighted measures with the best research potential in each domain. Finally, new challenges and opportunities for future research in the field of staff factors in dementia care were discussed. Secondly, the empirical paper, based on the conclusions of the literature review, developed a new measure to assess the sense of competence in dementia care staff. Development of the measure was guided by a framework derived from a review and critique of existing measures. The construct of sense of competence was defined and a questionnaire developed with the help of care staff and experts. A pilot study and a large-scale reliability and validity study were undertaken to refine the instrument and evaluate psychometric properties. The final measure, the Sense of Competence in Dementia Care Questionnaire for Staff (SOCID-S), is a 17-item instrument with promising quality characteristics. Opportunities for future research, improvement and application of the measure were explored. Finally, a critical appraisal was used as to reflect on the challenges of developing a new measure and to explore alternatives to the decisions taken to overcome those difficulties.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:625405 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Schepers, A. K. |
| Publisher | University College London (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/847468/ |
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