Culturally Safe Dementia Care: Working with Elders and Nurses to Improve Care

Teresa and MumDate: Friday, September 19, 2014

This is a special Research Circle on Culturally Safe Dementia Care (CSDC) and how to build nursing capacity to care for First Nations Elders with memory loss. The facilitators include the researchers, Dr. Wendy Hulko (principal investigator, Thompson River University) and Danielle Wilson (practitioner co-lead, Interior Health) and also elder advisors Cecilia DeRose (Esketemc) and Jean William (St’exelcemc) from Three Corners, Williams Lake, B.C.

__________

Why a Teaching Session led by Elders?

Dementia is becoming of increasing importance to First Nations communities and there has been a call for culturally relevant education for nurses specific to dementia care so that nurses can better care for Elders with memory loss. To meet this need, a collaboration of Secwepemc Elders, academic and community-based researchers, health authority decision-makers, and practicing nurses was formed to undertake an innovative community-based research project on culturally safe dementia care. This project used quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. 34 Elders from six Secwepemc communities in British Columbia participated in a series of roundtables to share their views on memory loss and memory care in later life and to develop a teaching session for nurses. The data were analyzed thematically to answer the research questions and create four teaching stories. 38 nurses (health care aides, licensed practical nurses and registered nurses) working in residential and/or home and community care in Williams Lake and Kamloops were recruited as research participants; 23 completed three pre-test measures, 15 of whom took part in the education program that included the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) Indigenous Cultural Competency (ICC) modules and a teaching session with Elders, followed by post-test assessment and scoring of the three measures. The data were analyzed statistically and thematically. The results indicate that our educational offering improved the knowledge, skills, and values of the nurse participants with respect to cultural safety and dementia care based on their scores having increased from per to post and discussion of the Elders’ teachings in the debriefing sessions. Further, nurse participants indicated the teaching session with the Elders was very effective and an integral part of this education program. Presenters will describe the research design, present the results from analyses of the two data sets (nurses and Elders), and discuss the implications for practice, research and education involving nurses and Elders.

___________

All are welcome to attend and participate in this FREE live videoconference and computer webinar session.

 

Purpose:

  • The purpose of this research is to build skills and teach nurses & community caregivers to care for First Nations Elders with memory loss in a culturally safe way.

Session Topics:

  • To turn lessons from earlier work with Elders into a teaching session for nurses, all guided by Elders
  • To find out what nurses know about cultural safety and dementia care and the skills they have before and after the teaching sessions; and,
  • To find out how well the teaching sessions improved the ability of nurses to care for Elders with memory loss

____________
Bios for CSDC Co-Leads and two Elder Advisors

Wendy March2114Dr. Wendy Hulko is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Thompson Rivers University where she teaches courses in the BSW and MEd programs and conducts research on aging and health. Her background includes residential care nursing, hospital social work, and government policy and planning. Wendy was the Researcher Co-Lead on the Culturally Safe Dementia Care (CSDC) research project.

 

 

 

Danielle_WilsonDanielle Wilson is a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation. She worked for twelve years as an environmental health officer with Health Canada, First Nation Inuit Health Branch. She currently works with Interior Health, Aboriginal Health Program as a Practice Lead and was the CSDC Practitioner Co-Lead.

 

 

 

 

photo Jean 2Jean William is a member of St’exelcemc First Nation. She is an Elder mentor, longtime Secwepemcstin (Shuswap) language teacher in Williams Lake, and a member of the Elders Council of Three Corners Health Society. Jean was an Elder advisor to the CSDC research project.

 

 

 

Cecilia2014Cecilia DeRose is a member of Esketemc First Nation. She is also a longtime Secwepemcstin language teacher, working with both the Elders College in Williams Lake and a local Aboriginal Head Start program. Cecilia was an Elder advisor to the CSDC research project.

 

 

Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.

Looking for past videos?

Technology Support

Not sure how to sign up? Looking for extra support in the technology aspect? Not sure if you are signing up for a webinar or a video conference? Check out our support page:

Counselling Support

The topics we cover can often be sensitive or emotionally triggering. In particular, we recognize that Please make sure that you are looking after yourself. If at any point you feel that you need to talk to a friend, Elder, counselor, or family member: don’t hesitate to do so. Resources can be found here:

Join the UBCLC Mailing List