Qualifications for nurses for the care of patients with dementia and support to their caregivers: A pilot evaluation of the dementia care management curriculum.

Background: A substantial increase of people with dementia (PwD) is predicted for the future. Nurses are taking over important tasks to support PwD, which requires a specialized qualification.

Objectives: The aim was to identify points for revision and to further improve the Dementia Care Manager (DCM) curriculum as a basis for probable qualification of nurses caring for PwD.

Design: We conducted a summative evaluation study to revise the first version of the DCM curriculum.

Setting: The study was conducted in the primary health care setting.

Participants: Nurses and lecturers of the first theoretical and practical implementation were involved.

Methods: Questionnaire-based interviews with nurses and lecturers after every module during the theoretical qualification. Besides, nurses rated the curriculum after the end of the theoretical part and evaluated the DCM tasks and the usefulness of the curriculum contents after the practical phase in questionnaire-based interviews. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis.

Results: A total of five nurses and 33 lecturers participated in the first theoretical and practical implementation of the DCM qualification. Generally, nurses and lecturers assessed the curriculum contents as "very important" or "important." In particular, the job-related issues, the variety of course topics and the close combination of theory and practice were highly valued. The practical implementation of the DCM was rated predominantly as "important" by nurses for the delivery of care for PwD. To optimize the theoretical DCM curriculum, participants suggested increasing the number of lessons for two of the modules (gerontopsychiatry, interdisciplinary case reviews). Furthermore, nurses preferred a longer practical phase, whereas some lecturers called for larger group sizes of participants.

Conclusions: The DCM qualification enhances nurses' competencies to care for PwD. The curriculum regards an interprofessional, cooperative team approach as the potential to improve health care supply for demented people and to better support their caregivers.