The impact of dementia education on student paramedics' preparedness to care, knowledge, confidence and attitudes towards dementia: an analytic survey.
Background: Paramedics play a vital role in the emergency healthcare of people living with dementia. People with dementia often have complex needs, posing challenges for paramedics. Paramedics often lack the confidence and skills to assess people with dementia appropriately, and receive little, if a...
| Published in: | British Paramedic Journal Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 9 - 18 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | clinical trial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Published: |
College of Paramedics
Jun2023
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=164323457&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 164323457 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 14784726 LFLE jtl: British Paramedic Journal issn: 14784726 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2023 vid: 8 iid: 1 pid: 46865 pub: College of Paramedics artinfo: ui: 164323457 164323457 164323457 10.29045/14784726.2023.6.8.1.9 164323457 ppf: 9 ppct: 9 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P tig: atl: The impact of dementia education on student paramedics' preparedness to care, knowledge, confidence and attitudes towards dementia: an analytic survey. aug: au: Jones, Danielle Capstick, Andrea Faisal, Muhammad Frankland, Joe affil: University of Bradford sug: subj: Dementia Education Education, Emergency Medical Services Students, Allied Health Patient Centered Care Professional Knowledge Confidence Student Attitudes Dementia Patients Outcomes of Education Human Male Female Adolescence Adult Middle Age Aged Aged, 80 and Over Descriptive Statistics Funding Source Clinical Trials Program Development Program Implementation Program Evaluation Pretest-Posttest Design Questionnaires Students, Undergraduate Quality of Health Care Clinical Assessment Tools Scales Patient Care Plans Adolescent: 13-18 years Adult: 19-44 years Middle Aged: 45-64 years Aged: 65+ years Aged, 80 & over Male Female ab: Background: Paramedics play a vital role in the emergency healthcare of people living with dementia. People with dementia often have complex needs, posing challenges for paramedics. Paramedics often lack the confidence and skills to assess people with dementia appropriately, and receive little, if any, dementia education. Aims: To evaluate the impact of dementia education on student paramedics' preparedness to care, knowledge, confidence and attitudes towards dementia. Methods: A 6-hour education programme on dementia was developed, implemented and evaluated. A pre-test-post-test design using self-completion validated questionnaires was used, to evaluate first-year undergraduate student paramedics' knowledge, confidence and attitudes towards dementia, as well as their preparedness to care for people with dementia. Results: A total of 43 paramedic students attended the education programme, with 41 fully completed questionnaires being collected pre-training and 32 post-training. Students reported feeling significantly more preparedness to care for people with dementia after the education session (p < 0.001). They felt their knowledge (100%), confidence (87.5%) and attitudes (87.5%) towards dementia had significantly increased following the education session. Using validated measures, the impact of education was found to be the highest on dementia knowledge (13.8 vs 17.5; p < 0.001) and on confidence (29.14 vs 34.06; p = 0.001), with only a minimal effect on attitudes (101.5 vs 103.4; p = 0.485). The education programme itself was well-evaluated. Conclusion: As paramedics are central to the emergency healthcare of people living with dementia, it is essential that the emerging paramedic workforce is equipped with the knowledge, attitudes and confidence to provide quality care for this population. We need to ensure dementia education is embedded in undergraduate curricula, and that consideration is given to the subjects, level and pedagogic approach taken to ensure positive outcomes are maximised. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: clinical trial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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