Caregiving_DementiaAbout a year ago, we posted a holiday gift for you—a Tools You Can Use blog that featured a free toolkit with evidence-based resources for staff in senior living communities promoting non-pharmacologic strategies to address behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.

We got a lot of response to that post. A lot, like almost 6,000 hits. Clearly, people are hungry for resources that address the needs of older adults with dementia. So in this spirit, we share another recently developed Tools Use Can Use, a continuing education online dementia series focusing on older adults that was created by the Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence at Arizona State University (ASU); this work is supported by Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust.

The series, called Caring for Persons with Alzheimer’s disease and Other Related Dementias and their Families Across the Continuum of Care, features four online, self-paced learning modules focusing on specific stages of dementia. The series aims to increase the knowledge and skills of nursing and other healthcare professionals to provide optimal dementia care and family support during all stages of the illness.

Nelma Shearer, PhD, N, FAAN Nelma Shearer, PhD, N, FAAN

Nelma Shearer, PhD, RN, FAAN, associate professor and director of the Hartford Center at the ASU College of Nursing & Health Innovation, told us a bit more about this evidence-based, free resource.

Why did you create this dementia series?

The dementia series was created at a time when several events came together as a “perfect storm.” In the fall of 2012, I met with Jan Dougherty, Family and Community Services Director at Banner Alzheimer’s Institute. She heightened my awareness of the need to educate and prepare nurses to work with the increasing number of older adults living in Arizona diagnosed with some form of dementia. She shared some facts and statistics with me that were rather dramatic regarding the numbers of older adults being diagnosed with various forms of dementia, and the need for nurses to provide appropriate care to them.

Soon after this meeting, the Hartford Center received renewal funding from the John A. Hartford Foundation. Upon learning of our additional funding, I met with Carol Kratz, then a program director with Virginia Piper Charitable Trust, who asked about our goals for the Hartford Center. We talked about working with faculty teaching in the Maricopa Community nursing program to enhance the knowledge and skills they need to teach the next generation of nurses in the care of older adults.

This led to my meeting with Dr. Margie Schultz, director of Maricopa Nursing. We agreed to create the Hartford-Maricopa Nursing collaboration to enhance geriatric nursing expertise of faculty and submitted a program application to Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust. We received funding, which enabled us to create the dementia series to meet a growing need for nurse education on older adults with dementia.

On a personal note, a close friend of mine died of Alzheimer’s a few months after the dementia series was created. Her experience reinforced to me the need to educate and prepare nurses to care for people with dementia.

What do nurses caring for older adults with dementia need to provide quality care?

Nurses need information on dementia from diagnosis to end of life, and on how to care for patients at various points on the continuum of this disease. Nurses need access to timely information, and developing these modules and offering them online allows us to enhance their knowledge and skills in the area of dementia. Faculty members can integrate this info into courses and curriculum and into the practice setting.

How can these modules assist?

The modules are intended to enhance nursing faculty and health care providers’ knowledge and skills in the care of older adults with a dementia diagnosis. The goal is that the information provided in the modules will be shared with students and, ultimately, reach patients, enhancing the care of older adults.

Who is the intended audience?

The anticipated audience for the modules was nursing faculty in the Maricopa Nursing community college system. However, we are seeing faculty who teach undergraduate and graduate students in a variety of nursing programs and nurses in the practice benefiting from the modules and the resources we offer.

What would you like to happen as a result of these modules?

This is an educational tool to enhance the knowledge and skills of faculty and students, with a snowball effect over time where knowledge is shared at various levels or points of care, with the ultimate outcome being raising awareness and providing better care for those with dementia.

PiperLogo_125Tell us about your partnership with the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust. How does this work advance their mission?

We share Piper Trust’s goal of enriching health, well-being, and opportunity for older adults in Maricopa County by helping them to remain healthy, independent, and productive. We create and offer nurse education to support these goals.

ASU_CON_logo_34Tell us about ASU’s membership in the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence (NHCGNE). How does this work advance their mission?

We are one of the founding members of the National Hartford Center. We share and advance their mission of enhancing and sustaining the capacity and competence of all nurses to work in partnership with others to provide quality care to older adults. We work to promote faculty development; advance nursing science for older adults; facilitate adoption of best practices; foster leadership; and to impact policy.

We hope that, during this holiday season, you will share this free resource with the nurses and health care providers you know to ultimately improve the quality of care of people with dementia, as well as the quality of life for their caregivers.

’Tis the season to think of others.

This is the 13th in an occasional series. See other Health AGEnda posts on Tools You Can Use:

Tools You Can Use: The Quality Care Through a Quality Workforce Toolkit

Tools You Can Use: Webinar Series Covers Geriatrics-Competent Care for Medicare-Medicaid Population

Tools You Can Use: The Essentials of Cardiovascular Care in Older Adults

Tools You Can Use: Residency Training Toolkits and Best Practices Guidelines for Surgeons and Related Specialists

Tools You Can Use: Geriatric Transitions Objective Structured Video Examination

Tools You Can Use: A Non-pharmacologic Toolkit for Addressing Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia

Tools You Can Use: A New APProach to Treating Older Patients

Tools You Can Use: Ten Steps for Communicating with Patients about Serious Illness from the Center to Advance Palliative Care (Video)

Tools You Can Use: Detecting Cognitive Impairment During the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit

Tools You Can Use: Preparing a Personal Advance Care Plan

Tools You Can Use: Guidelines for Assessing Patients Facing Surgery

Tools You Can Use: Principles for Treating Patients with Multiple Chronic Conditions