title: Nursing home staff characteristics and knowledge gain from a didactic workshop on depression and behavior management.
abstract: Depression is a prevalent and serious problem among nursing home residents. Nursing home staff members are gatekeepers for mental health treatment for residents, but may know little about depression and its management. We evaluated a didactic workshop for nursing home staff on depressive symptoms and management. Results for 58 staff participants showed significant gains in knowledge about depression diagnosis and management after the workshop. A regression predicting pre-test knowledge indicated that significant contributors were age (beta = .27; p &#60 .05), education (beta = .28, p = &#60 .05), and experience in long-term care (beta = -.53, p &#60 .01). Results provide preliminary support for didactic training about depression, but suggest that differences in staff knowledge related to experience should be addressed in training.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA. smeeks@louiseville.edu
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meeks
authors.forename: Elizabeth G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Burton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000193:education*; D003704:Dementia / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D005851:Geriatric Nursing / Q000193:education; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009735:Nursing Homes; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000193:education*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D014481:United States