OBrien-etal2018

From emcawiki
Jump to: navigation, search
OBrien-etal2018
BibType ARTICLE
Key OBrien-etal2018
Author(s) Rebecca O’Brien, Sarah. E. Goldberg, Alison Pilnick, Suzanne Beeke, Justine Schneider, Kate Sartain, Louise Thomson, Megan Murray, Bryn Baxendale, Rowan H. Harwood
Title The VOICE study: A before and after study of a dementia communication skills training course
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Dementia, Training, Applied Conversation Analysis
Publisher
Year 2018
Language English
City
Month
Journal PLOS ONE
Volume 13
Number 6
Pages
URL Link
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0198567
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

Download BibTex

Abstract

Background A quarter of acute hospital beds are occupied by persons living with dementia, many of whom have communication problems. Healthcare professionals lack confidence in dementia communication skills, but there are no evidence-based communication skills training approaches appropriate for professionals working in this context. We aimed to develop and pilot a dementia communication skills training course that was acceptable and useful to healthcare professionals, hospital patients and their relatives.

Methods The course was developed using conversation analytic findings from video recordings of healthcare professionals talking to patients living with dementia in the acute hospital, together with systematic review evidence of dementia communication skills training and taking account of expert and service-user opinion. The two-day course was based on experiential learning theory, and included simulation and video workshops, reflective diaries and didactic teaching. Actors were trained to portray patients living with dementia for the simulation exercises. Six courses were run between January and May 2017. 44/45 healthcare professionals attended both days of the course. Evaluation entailed: questionnaires on confidence in dementia communication; a dementia communication knowledge test; and participants’ satisfaction. Video-recorded, simulated assessments were used to measure changes in communication behaviour.

Results Healthcare professionals increased their knowledge of dementia communication (mean improvement 1.5/10; 95% confidence interval 1.0–2.0; p<0.001). Confidence in dementia communication also increased (mean improvement 5.5/45; 95% confidence interval 4.1–6.9; p<0.001) and the course was well-received. One month later participants reported using the skills learned in clinical practice. Blind-ratings of simulated patient encounters demonstrated behaviour change in taught communication behaviours to close an encounter, consistent with the training, but not in requesting behaviours.

Conclusion We have developed an innovative, evidence-based dementia communication skills training course which healthcare professionals found useful and after which they demonstrated improved dementia communication knowledge, confidence and behaviour.

Notes