at them, because they are afraid. The CNA now feels defeated; however, they take expected action – the CNA tells the nurse. Then, the nurse assesses that the resident is aggressive and gives the resident their PRN psychotropic medication to calm them down. The resident then falls within 24 hours and is sent to the hospital. Therefore, the resident suffers from side effects of disorientation and fatigue from the unnecessary psychotropic medication given that led to the fall, and confusion likely sets in because of the transition from facility to hospital and back, amongst any pain associated with the fall. The staff members involved suffer because they haven’t learned how to properly connect with the person who has dementia, as the medication served as a band aid, leaving them feeling either unsuccessful and unconfident or oblivious that more could have been done. Lastly, the organization suffers because their quality measures are impacted due to the unnecessary use of the psychotropic medication, the fall, and the hospitalization associated with the incident. Also, this increases the chance that staff will leave the organization, because they don’t have the training or resources needed to do their job, amongst the stress brought on by the pandemic, leading to them feeling not valued. I’ve seen this way too many times.
Increasing the stakes, some states have moved towards nursing students to act as licensed practitioners and non-certified staff who have minimum training with a nursing facility to provide direct care. Although this helps with staffing numbers during this pandemic, these individuals are at a higher risk for burnout and turnover if they aren’t provided the proper training and resources needed.
THE SOLUTION
When staff are trained in dementia care, not only do they feel more confident and competent in their skills, but they feel successful when providing care and valued by their organization. Enviably then, the individuals with dementia can freely live in their new world because the staff understand what the residents are going through and connect to them more easily, boosting the residents’ quality of life. This is the vision of the Dementia Connection Institute, originated by NeuroEssence, where innovative strategies are used to educate others about dementia and approaches to care that are non-pharmacological in nature, unique, empowering, and successful, based on the Dementia Connection Model©.
Training needs to be easily accessible, meaningful and fun for learning to take, all common pain-points solved for organizations by the Institute’s offerings. For example, there are brain games used throughout the curriculum to better help staff retain the information using fun, interactive games that sustain their attention and keeps them coming back for more. The Institute uses several modalities of training to meet the needs of the healthcare professional, organization and caregiver, like live in-person or virtual, online at one’s leisure, and more. And it’s first of its kind to offer its professional education and resources to family caregivers.
Check it out at
dementiaconnectioninstitute.org
The return on investment of staff dementia care training is priceless. Train your staff, boost your staff retention and outcomes.
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