title: Providing information for family carers of hospital patients experiencing dementia.
abstract: Family carers of people with dementia may take on this role without understanding how it will evolve or how to obtain support. Hospitalisation of the person with dementia can not only compound carers' concerns, but also provides an opportunity for their needs to be addressed. This project involved preparing hospital based nurses, so they could initiate a dialogue with family carers of patients diagnosed with dementia, developing a protocol to guide the nurses as they provided carers with a dementia information booklet, implementing this protocol during a 12-week trial period, and obtaining feedback from the nurses using a questionnaire. At least 21 booklets were distributed; 16 nurses provided feedback. Nurses viewed the practice change positively. Recommendations are to engage ward based champions to embed this strategy into nursing practice, keep the staff informed, and ensure that the booklet is kept in a location visible to the staff.
authors.affiliation: Medical Division, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Western Australia, Australia Mary.Bronson@health.wa.gov.au.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bronson
authors.affiliation: Centre for Nursing Research, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Western Australia; Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Toye
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D017028:Caregivers / Q000193:education*; D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000379:methods*; D003704:Dementia / Q000451:nursing*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D010174:Pamphlets; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: caregivers; dementia; hospitals; nurses