title: Tensions and ambiguities: A qualitative study of final year adult field nursing students' experiences of caring for people affected by advanced dementia in Wales, UK.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Rising dementia prevalence means that general nurses globally will encounter more people affected by advanced dementia. Advanced dementia care is profoundly complex yet there is a paucity of research exploring how general nursing students experience and thus learn to care for those affected.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explore final year nursing students' (adult field) experiences of caring for people affected by advanced dementia.
  
  
  METHODS
  A qualitative design was adopted.
  
  
  METHODS
  The setting was Wales, UK.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eleven final year nursing undergraduates (adult field).
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected using digitally recorded one-to-one in-depth interviews in 2013 and analysed using thematic analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants' experiences fell within three main themes: they can be quite challenging; a lot of dementia patients are seen as hazards and it's not all about doing stuff. Participants aspired to person-centred care. However, they felt insufficiently prepared for what they believed was knowledgeable work requiring interpersonal competence and confidence. Participants appreciated that many practitioners, their clinical educators, were insufficiently prepared for advanced dementia care.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study provided further evidence of the complexity of caring for those with advanced dementia and associated theory, practice and policy gaps. There are important implications for education in terms of curriculum development and learning from and in practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, College of Human and Health Sciences Swansea University, SA2 8PP, United Kingdom. Electronic address: t.watts@swan.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Tessa E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Watts
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, College of Human and Health Sciences Swansea University, SA2 8PP, United Kingdom. Electronic address: r.e.davies@swansea.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Davies
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003704:Dementia / Q000451:nursing*; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D014852:Wales; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Advanced dementia; Palliative care; Professional education and training; Student experience