Early Stage Researcher (ESR) Kate Shiells tells us about her work for the Interdisciplinary Network Using Current Technology in Dementia (INDUCT) project:
As an Early Stage Researcher now in the final year of the INDUCT project, I am currently in the process of analysing results. For my research, I have been exploring how electronic patient records (EPR) are helping or hindering care staff to plan care for people living with dementia in nursing homes. To do so, I have interviewed nursing home staff in Belgium, Czech Republic and Spain. One of the many questions I asked was, “what is most important for you to know about individuals with dementia you care for?” Common answers to this question included: being aware of what their routines were like before they moved into the home; knowing their previous occupation; and finding out who the most important family members or friends are in their lives.
I also wanted to explore the needs of people with dementia in nursing homes through a review of the literature. Much of the literature in this field has involved investigating their needs through proxy accounts. In other words, asking family members and formal carers. Research has shown, however, that proxy accounts can often be unreliable. Therefore, I only included studies that explored the self-reported needs of people with dementia in my review.
Participants commonly described their lives as boring and wished for social interaction and activities to counteract this boredom. A number of participants also said that helping others in the home provided a means of occupation, be it simply listening to other residents’ problems. Furthermore, people with dementia overwhelmingly want to be able to access the outdoor environment, and often feel trapped inside the home due to inaccessible outdoor spaces, or simply because there are not enough staff to assist them to go outside.
I hope to use this information to guide developers of EPR systems to design electronic assessment forms and care plans that allow staff to collect the types of information they need to know about people with dementia, and which also prompt them to address the relevant needs of people with dementia they are caring for.
For more information: https://www.dementiainduct.eu/project/esr13/