The perceived level of self-efficacy of direct care staff who complete person-centered care dementia training in long-term care setting

Abstract

<p>Education that enables direct care workers to provide person-centered care approaches to older adults with dementia is necessary to optimize quality of life and reduce unnecessary antipsychotic medication use in long-term care settings. A quasi-experimental repeated measure project design evaluated the effectiveness of a dementia training program (one of several interventions implemented to reduce antipsychotic medication rates) by measuring the perceived level of self-efficacy before the training, immediately after the training and four to six weeks after completing the training. A total of nineteen direct care workers (nurses and nursing assistants) demonstrated statistically significant increases in mean self-efficacy scores immediately following the class (posttest 1 p&lt;0.001) and four to six weeks later (posttest 2 p&lt;0.01). Although predicators of self-efficacy were not statistically significant a larger sample size could reveal potential predictors that could be considered in training efforts. Replication of the project design would be beneficial in understanding the effectiveness of the selected dementia training curriculum in other long-term care settings. Examination of the correlation of the level of self-efficacy and observed person-centered care practices may be beneficial in understanding opportunities to further reduce antipsychotic medications use. The project findings supported positive educational outcomes from the selected dementia training program. Measuring the effectiveness of other implemented quality improvement interventions is necessary to determine the reason for lack of continued reduction in antipsychotic medication by the project site.</p>