The experiences of registered nurses seeking support to care for a person living with dementia: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study

Abstract

Title: How do registered nurses seek support to care for a patient with dementia in an acute hospital: A hermeneutic study.

Background: People with dementia are usually admitted to acute hospitals for management of an acute medical illness, and rarely for management of dementia. People with dementia admitted to a hospital stay five to seven times longer than other patients with the same conditions. The care received by people with dementia can be impacted by staff, who can feel undertrained and lacking confidence in providing care for patients with dementia.

Aim: To explore the experiences of nurses seeking support to care for a patient with dementia in an acute hospital. Research questions were developed focusing on the lived experience of nurses and dementia specialist nurses in seeking support, types of support accessed and whether the support was implemented.

Design and Methods: A hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative study was completed. The study involved eleven nurses working in older adult wards, oncology, emergency department and dementia specialist services. Nurses participated in a one-to-one semi-structured interview. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically through the lens of hermeneutic phenomenology (Braun and Clarke, 2021).

Findings: Data from nurses created three themes and nine subthemes were identified: 1; need for an appropriate infrastructure to care for a patient with dementia, 2; need for support from others and 3; lack of support. Data from dementia specialist nurses identified four themes and ten subthemes. The four themes were 1; dementia specialist services (DSS) providing support, 2; where dementia specialist services seek support, 3; the infrastructure of DSS and 4; nurses lacked understanding of dementia and willingness to engage with DSS. The findings discussed the support needs and challenges experienced by both nurses and dementia specialist nurses.

Conclusion: Support was sought by nurses, and occasionally this was from dementia specialist nurses, however the issue was the availability at time of need. Dementia specialist nurses felt unsupported and unable to provide the support needed. Education is not simply the answer, dementia specialist nurses need recognition for their role and what they do by nurses and the infrastructure of acute hospitals. Dementia needs to be highlighted as significant need and have the support needed for patients with dementia, nurses and dementia specialist nurses.