Education Program for Care Home Staff

Effects of a Competency-based Education Program on Care Home Staff's Sense of Competence Related to Dementia Care in Mainland China: A Mixed-methods Approach

The competence of care home staff in dementia care is highly influential to the quality of care that adversely affects both people living with dementia and staff and in Mainland China where knowledge on dementia among care home staff was generally poor and this area is under-researched. This study aims at developing a competency-based culturally-sensitive education program on dementia care for care home staff through literature review, qualitative study. And then a quasi-experiment design without random assignment will be conducted to evaluate the effects of this program on care home staff's sense of competence, knowledge, attitudes, and care approach related to dementia care and staff satisfaction with the intervention. Focus group interviews will be conducted to understand participants' experience about the education program after the intervention. This study is expected to provide an effective way to improve care homes staff's competence in dementia care thereby improve the quality of care.

Inclusion Criteria:

Care homes:

• having at least 10 people with dementia living in;
• with at least 10 care staff working for people with dementia;
• which do not have any educational activities for staff in dementia three months before the study and staff training plan during the whole study period;
• whose management level agrees to participate.

Care staff:

• working for people with dementia;
• speaking and reading Chinese;
• being willing to participate in the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

• having any educational activities in dementia three months before the study;
• having a training plan during the whole study period.