Educating the health and social care workforce in dementia care

Centre for Dementia Seminar Series 2018

Speaker: Dr Fiona McCandless-Sugg, Specialist Dementia Nurse, Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Abstract

Caring for people who are living with dementia is a highly skilled area of nursing and care practice. The first principle of the Royal College of Nursing’s (2013) SPACE project was 'Staff who are skilled and have time to care'. However, the Alzheimer's Society (2016) reported that only 2% of those surveyed for their 'Fix Dementia Care' campaign felt that all hospital staff understood the specific needs of people with dementia. The Dementia Core Skills Education and Training Framework (Skills for Health, Health Education England, and Skills for Care, 2015) applies to the entire health and care workforce, and it sets out the 13 subjects that care workers having regular contact with people who are living with dementia should be skilled in. There are significant challenges in ensuring that staff who are caring for people living with dementia have the skills required to provide outstanding care. Within this presentation there are reflections on training and some suggestions for educational provision.