Yes / Objectives: Dementia progressively affects cognitive functioning, including the ability to communicate. Those who struggle to communicate are often considered unable to relate to other people. Frontline care workers are in a position to connect with residents. However, we know little about their perspectives. The aim of this study was to understand how and when nursing home staff meaningfully engaged with residents with advanced dementia. Methods: Semi-structured interviews, supplemented by informal conversations, were conducted with 21 staff from seven nursing homes. Inductive thematic analysis identified themes in the accounts. Results: Four themes related to how staff engaged with residents with advanced dementia (initiating meaningful engagement, recognising subtle reactions, practising caring behaviours, patience and perseverance). Two themes related to when meaningful engagement occurred (lacking time to connect, making the most of time during personal care). Conclusion: A key barrier to implementing formal interventions to improve care is lack of staff time. Staff overcome this by using personal care time for meaningful engagement with residents. Their approach, developed through experience, is consonant with person-centred dementia care. Building on this, future research should use participatory approaches building on practice wisdom to further develop and evaluate meaningful engagement with residents with advanced dementia. / The work reported in this article contributed to a PhD by the first author, with funding awarded to the Centre for Applied Dementia Studies at the University of Bradford by BUPA.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/19811 |
| Date | 01 February 2024 |
| Creators | Haunch, K., Downs, Murna G., Oyebode, Jan |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, Published version |
| Rights | © 2023 the Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), CC-BY-NC-ND |
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