The effect of temporality on communication with patients with dementia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
How does the temporality of an acute hospital ward affect communication between patients with dementia and nursing staff?
IRAS ID
211448
Contact name
Emily Charlotte Oliver
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 0 days
Research summary
The ageing population and increasing prevalence of dementia at both a national and global level has led to a greater influx of dementia patients throughout hospitals with, an estimated 1 in 4 beds occupied by someone with dementia. A focus on the care for people with dementia in hospital is now a world-wide public health priority, establishing a need for further research into the care in which people with dementia receive. Most of the studies conducted in hospital settings studies have focused on managing challenging behaviour, end-of-life care or been dominated by biological factors. The current research surrounding dementia is lacking in research directly focusing on the experience of hospital care and in particular communication.
Communication constitutes an important part of the quality of nursing care, influencing both patient and staff satisfaction. Previous research has reported that a lack of communication between nursing staff and patient, can lead to conflict in the relationship; social isolation, depression, compassion fatigue and an increased risk of being discharged to a long term care setting. Previous studies have identified time as one of the most significant barriers to effective communication, however, there is a gap in the research exploring how nurses are ruled by time, how they perceive the time that they have and most importantly how this affects their communication with patients. This study aims to address this gap.
To explore this further, this study will use observations of interactions and interviews with nursing staff on three older person’s wards within a NHS hospital. The data collected will be used to identify recurrent themes and create a framework used to develop recommendations to improve communication between nursing staff and patients with dementia in hospital settings.REC name
South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SC/0593
Date of REC Opinion
9 Jan 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion