In March 2019 Riversway held a Raising Dementia Care Awareness Month which focussed on giving Level 2 Training to Managers, nurses and other senior leaders within the home.
Eight nurses completed the Level 2 Dementia Care Training at Riversway, this consists of 14 hours CPD training and training in
- Understanding the role of the Dementia Champion and supporting them in their role
- What is Dementia? Numbers and Statistics
- Different types of dementia and their presentations
- Overview of the Bio-Psycho-Social model and how it has developed
- Importance of an Early Diagnosis
- Delirium, Dementia or Depression
- Pain and Pain tools
- Medication and poly-pharmacy
- Legislation and other drivers
- Complexity in Dementia Care
- Bio-Psycho-Social model - Kitwood
- Importance of good communication
- Meaning of Distressed Reaction and treatment strategies
- Person centred care and Relationship centred - the difference
- The importance of the Family
- Sexuality
- Meaningful Activity
- Life History and Life Stories development of This is Me and the Golden Ticket
- Physical activity
Eleven out of fifteen identified leaders have completed day 1 and, as mentioned, eight nurse have completed the whole training.
I very much enjoyed the whole process and was so impressed with the amount of commitment, engagement and enjoyment which the nurses seemed to get out of the whole experience.
So far all nurses have attended, some of whom see each other very little. They benefited tremendously from sharing experiences and we spoke of shared residents and the intricacies of meeting their needs.
One resident’s dementia presentation in particular is causing concern and so 5 nurses, who know him well, and I discussed his presentation in the light of Kitwood’s Enriched Dementia Care Model
Dementia = neurological impairment + health + biography+ personality+ social care environment
and drew together a formulation with which we could work, identifying that most of his behaviour seems to come from feeling threatened and the need for safety. All nurses felt that they could improve his experience of care.
In the Meaningful Activity training Marilisa and I presented the renewed training and spoke in detail about the need to write the golden tickets from Oomph both to have a chance to win £150 but also to highlight that some very special care goes on with Riversway.
There are 4 people to do the whole training and managers to do day 2 and Meaningful Activity. I am thoroughly impressed with how well this training has been accepted and have already seen results with the support service lead telling me that a night nurse had picked up a shift in dementia care area quite willingly (as opposed to being rather reluctant before!)
I thought that this model of training nurses is very validating and productive and they responded remarkably well to it.
More level 2 sessions will come in May along with another training session of Riversway Dementia Champions.
