Empowering assisted living front-line care staffs to better care for alzheimer’s and dementia residents

Abstract

Creating a feeling of empowerment among front-line care staff members may assist in better coping and achievement of quality care with a growing assisted living resident population who have Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of Dementia. The purpose of this qualitative research study was two fold in nature: (1) identify the training needs of front-line care staff members, and (2) create a training manual which would empower these front-line care staff workers to conduct their care duties in a more confident, effective, and sensitive manner. The first phase of this research was conducted with 24 front-line care staff in three assisted-living facilities in Illinois, New Mexico, and Florida, all women 18-69 years of age (M=36.8, SD=7.3), with 6 months to 10 years work experience in this job (M=2.19 years, SD=2.3 years). All reported that they had not received sufficient training in caring for this growing segment of the resident population. Based on responses to a needs-analysis questionnaire (n=24), a “Dementia-related Care Training” manual was developed. The following four themes emerged from needs analysis responses, and were the bases for the training modules: (1) experiencing the meaning of Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of Dementia, (2) acknowledging residents’ changing care needs over time, (3) realizing the importance of individualized care for residents, and (4) empowering front-line care staff members in the care process. The training manual was administered at the same three locations with some participants from the original sample (n=18), in order to receive feedback about the manual’s effectiveness and usefulness for a front-line care staff. Post-training feedback indicated that using such a training manual in an on-going manner would increase front-line care staffs’ job satisfaction and job commitment, as well as reduce job stress through better on-the-job coping skills learned.