title: Evaluating educational initiatives to improve palliative care for people with dementia: a narrative review.
abstract: Dementia accounts for one in three deaths among people aged 65 and over, but end-of-life care for people with dementia is often sub-optimal. Palliative care for people with dementia poses particular challenges to those providing services, and current policy initiatives recommend education and training in palliative care for those working with patients with dementia. However, there are few evaluations of the effectiveness of dementia education and training. This paper presents a narrative review undertaken in 2011-2012 of evaluations of palliative care education for those working with people with dementia at the end of life. A total of eight papers were identified that described and evaluated such palliative care education; none reported benefits for people with dementia. There is a clear need to develop and evaluate educational interventions designed to improve palliative and end-of-life care for people with dementia. Some suggestions for educationally sound approaches are discussed.
authors: University College London, UK.
authors: Mareeni
authors: M
authors: Raymond
authors: Alex
authors: A
authors: Warner
authors: Nathan
authors: N
authors: Davies
authors: Elora
authors: E
authors: Baishnab
authors: Jill
authors: J
authors: Manthorpe
authors: Steve
authors: S
authors: Iliffe
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003704:Dementia / Q000451:nursing*; D004506:Education, Nursing; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D010166:Palliative Care; D058996:Quality Improvement
keywords: dementia; end-of-life care; healthcare; palliative care; professional education and training