What support do nurses need to provide palliative care for people with dementia?
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence & Practice Previous    

What support do nurses need to provide palliative care for people with dementia?

Elizabeth Champion Lead nurse, Dementia care, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, Kent, England

The aim of this project was to identify the support required by registered nurses and unregistered healthcare support workers to provide palliative care for people with dementia in an acute hospital in England.

A quantitative approach was taken and participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire. Data were collated and analysed to identify support needs and any emerging themes.

Respondents were confident in identifying the different stages of dementia. There was less confidence in identifying a patient with dementia for palliative care referral compared with a patient without dementia. Further needs were identified by respondents in supporting the family/carer of the person with dementia and being aware of available support to facilitate palliative care for people with dementia and support for end of life care (EoLC) planning.

The findings suggest that further work is required in relation to dementia and EoLC. Practical and educational collaboration with EoLC/palliative care practitioners and dementia leads would be beneficial.

Nursing Older People. 29, 7, 34-39. doi: 10.7748/nop.2017.e934

Correspondence

liz.champion@nhs.net

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Conflict of interest

None declared

Received: 20 March 2017

Accepted: 30 May 2017

Want to read more?

RCNi-Plus
Already have access? Log in

or

3-month trial offer for £5.25/month

Subscribe today and save 50% on your first three months
RCNi Plus users have full access to the following benefits:
  • Unlimited access to all 10 RCNi Journals
  • RCNi Learning featuring over 175 modules to easily earn CPD time
  • NMC-compliant RCNi Revalidation Portfolio to stay on track with your progress
  • Personalised newsletters tailored to your interests
  • A customisable dashboard with over 200 topics
Subscribe

Alternatively, you can purchase access to this article for the next seven days. Buy now


Are you a student? Our student subscription has content especially for you.
Find out more