A dementia communication training intervention based on the VERA framework for pre-registration nurses: Part I developing and testing an implementation strategy.

Background: People living with dementia experience progressive difficulty in expressing physical and emotional needs. Health care staff including student nurses require training to develop compensatory communication strategies. However, there is no standardised foundation level dementia communication training within pre-registration curricula.

A feasibility study of dementia communication training based on the VERA framework for pre-registration nurses: Part II impact on student experience.

Background: People living with dementia have complex communication needs, especially during acute hospital admissions. The VERA framework (validation, emotion, reassurance, activity) was designed to promote person centred communication between student nurses and people living with dementia, but there is limited evaluation of its impact.

Aim: To measure the impact of dementia communication training (based on VERA) plus older adult unit (OAU) placement on students' ability to recognise opportunities for person centred (PC) communication compared to OAU placement alone.

Evaluating the VERA framework for communication.

This article describes an evaluation of the use of the VERA (validation, emotion, reassurance, activity) framework for communication in a practice development unit at North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust. Staff of two older-adult inpatient wards in the Crystal Centre received training on the VERA framework and applied it to their practice. They found the VERA framework to be practical and user friendly, and to result in compassionate communication.

VERA framework: communicating with people who have dementia.

This article presents a communication framework, devised by the authors, that could be used by healthcare professionals who come into contact with people who have dementia. The framework is based on four key concepts: validation, emotion, reassure and activity (VERA). It describes a stage-by-stage process of communication that guides nurses towards providing compassionate and caring responses.