Evaluation of innovative nutrition education and training for care staff supporting people living with dementia

Murphy, Jane, Holmes, Joanne and Brooks, Cindy (2017) Evaluation of innovative nutrition education and training for care staff supporting people living with dementia. P828 . (doi:10.1016/j.jalz.2017.06.1147).

Abstract

Nutrition-related interventions that enable improvements in food and drink intake offer an opportunity to prevent the potential risk of weight loss, undernutrition and dehydration, the consequent decline in cognition as well as alleviating the associated care burden. Informed by our own funded evidence-based research and relevant peer reviewed literature and reports, a combination of innovative training tools (workbook and training film) on nutrition and hydration have been implemented for staff caring for people living with dementia in elderly residential, domiciliary care, hospital and other care settings (http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/nutrition-dementia). The training materials are structured into three sections: Section 1: Food and drink availability, Section 2: Importance of activity: encouraging food and drink intake through activity and Section 3: Importance of communication and relationships. Using qualitative, exploratory methodologies, we report the findings from an evaluation of the impact of the training materials on practice and people living with dementia. Semi-structured telephone interviews were undertaken with 18 care staff (care homes, domiciliary care, hospital) at 3months after receiving the tools. The telephone interviews lasted between 10 and 20 minutes. Conversations were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using thematic analysis. Main themes reported included changing environmental factors (e.g. protected mealtimes), offering choice, recording those at risk of or having undernutrition through nutrition screening (‘MUST’) and monitoring the quantities of drinks consumed, person-centred approach (e.g. aware of persons tastes). The majority of participants (15/18 participants) had changed how food and drink were made available and introduced activity to encourage food and drink intake. 13 of 18 participants had changed practice around communication about food and drink. These preliminary findings show the potential for this platform of training to make positive changes given its flexibly to be either self-completed and/or shared by staff with their colleagues. Further research needs to widen the scope for evaluation to reflect differences in cultural diversity and practice in other areas.

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Contributors

Author: Cindy Brooks

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