On 27th February 2019, the 3NDWG held a Tweet-Up where they posed the question: What does good hospital care for those living with dementia look like?
Many of our followers gave great examples and suggestions. Here is a selection of some of the responses:
‘Where to start? Ward G7 enhanced dementia care unit in Southampton has developed lots of great practices. Staff often affected by dementia personally, wanting to do better for people with dementia in their care. This Is Me, pets, activities… and influencing others too @EdcuG7’
‘#stcuthshospice providing Namaste Care for people with advanced dementia while they are in local acute hospital’
‘Great to see this topic being discussed @DCMatters we have developed a model of care called Mattering in Hospital. The model focuses on achieving culture change and increased capability utilising an emotional intelligence framework #ask3NDWG #Feelingsmattermost’
‘If someone’s behaviour is not as expected, let’s try referring to them as patients experiencing difficulties – so if the team resolves the difficulties the patient is facing, suddenly everyone’s happy. Once the staff understand that they need to assist, things change.’
‘Teams need to be guided to see distress rather than ‘behaviour’ and help resolve and sooth their emotions and feelings rather than ‘deescalate a behaviour’ #ask3NDWG’
‘When I first started to teach hospital teams how to interact with people living with dementia, the rates of so-called “aggressive incidents” dropped dramatically. The patients hadn’t been aggressive – they’d been frightened!’
‘People without dementia would expect a specialist ward for whatever had taken them into hospital and people with dementia are entitled to the same. There will be some for whom a dementia ward would be a better support, but most would benefit from support on a specialist ward’
‘This was key for us 4 week stay in hospital, allowed 24/7 access to calm, reassure, comfort & support thanks to @JohnCampaign.’
‘1st 2 weeks on major ward, noise, lights, constant monitoring of vitals, unfamiliarity were a nightmare worsened by sleep deprivation’
‘We were moved from a busy ward after 2 weeks to a quieter #dementia friendly ward with just 4 beds, in quiet corner, even with that they moved us twice again first to private room, then one with TV & own bathroom to calm & replicate home setting. Staff were AMAZING’
‘I agree, knowing the signs and symptoms of dementia is being taught regularly but care staff need self awareness, emotional intelligence, and not fear emotional attachment at work to truly appreciate that feelings matter most. A new culture of nursing is required’
‘A person with dementia whose behaviour isn’t fitting in on the ward should always be considered to have unmet care needs. With insight and skills training, staff learn to recognise what support that person needs and how to deliver it. What used to seem baffling becomes obvious and addressable.’
‘Key to a workable person-centred care document is to balance detail with readability; carers typically want to write a novel (I know – I was that carer!), but staff need something they can locate and use information from in a practical time-frame.’
‘Outpatient appointments can be a nightmare if person living with dementia becomes distressed in waiting room. Need first in the morning or afternoon appointments.’
‘I agree, knowing the signs and symptoms of dementia is being taught regularly but care staff need self awareness, emotional intelligence, and not fear emotional attachment at work to truly appreciate that feelings matter most. A new culture of nursing is required’
‘There should be specialist dementia staff available around the clock, not just 9-5 weekdays. While all staff should understand, specialists play key role on helping difficult situations. And spreading their expertise.’
‘It would be great for hospitals to have a dementia ward that could work as a ‘centre of excellence’ where staff could rotate to spend time with specialist nurses to learn skills to take back to their own clinical area’
‘Focus on supporting staff to reflect on their own practice enabling them to lead innovation and make change to improve care rather than top down improvement strategies- creating learning environments for compassionate care led by @JackieLearning is a great example’
‘Agreed. Teams need to be guided to see distress rather than ‘behaviour’ and help resolve and sooth their emotions and feelings rather than ‘deescalate a behaviour”
‘Care plans were pretty basic. This care plan included info about mum’s triggers / anxieties. It was an active learning doc constantly updated where they recorded what was worrying mum & together we worked on responses to reassure her while family not there.’
What do you think? Let us know your thoughts and experiences.