Nurse Unit Manager, Felicity Leavold and the Acute Care of the Elderly (ACE) nursing team have made a remarkable contribution to dementia care research, in a co-design study alongside Associate Professor Chris Moran and experts from Monash University under the National Centre for Healthy Aging.
The research focuses on understanding how hospital environments can better cater to support individuals with dementia, ensuring more compassionate and person-centred care. The key findings of the study have been published in BMC Geriatrics, titled “Understanding and Integrating the Needs and Preferences of People Living with Dementia in the Inpatient Setting: A Qualitative Study.”
People living with dementia often receive suboptimal hospital care due to challenges in communicating their needs and preferences within busy hospital environments.
To address this gap, the research team has co-designed a digital solution, named the ‘Hospital Admission Readiness Toolkit,’ an interface designed to rapidly integrate the pre-admission needs and preferences of a person living with dementia into hospital care.
The research involved facilitated design workshops with nursing and allied health staff from the ACE unit at Frankston Hospital, to co-develop a toolkit grounded in the firsthand experiences of the nursing team in caring for patients living with dementia.
“The ACE nursing team’s contribution to the design workshops allowed for the sharing of invaluable nursing knowledge and expertise that informed the content of the toolkit,” explains Felicity.
“The toolkit draws on essential insights from nursing staff about what is required to care for a patient living with dementia in hospital. It also incorporates input from carers, focusing on the information needed to make their hospital stay more settled, less traumatic and frightening, and ultimately much more positive.”
“We have a wealth of knowledge and experience in our nursing team. Seeing it used to inform and improve the care of our patients is exceptionally rewarding.”
This important project is now seeking funding to support the ongoing development of the toolkit.