The care skills improving quality of life of elderly people with dementia : An analysis of the perception of nurses

Abstract

The quality of life of elderly people with moderate to severe dementia is strongly affected by the quality of care they received. Although the importance of the development of dementia care has been recognized, the progress of the study still remains the early stage of the development. For establishing a framework of dementia care, the skills of the care which were perceived by nurses as improving the quality of life of the demented elderly were investigated. The questionnaire was constructed by extracting effective care elements from literatures of dementia care practice. Self-reported data of 509 nurses working in dementia ward were analyzed. Subsequent factor analysis revealed a nine factor structure of the dementia care skills. The structure of these care skills was discussed with Maslow's theory of human needs.