Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) is a systematic observational tool developed by two nurses: Bredin and Kitwood in the United Kingdom. They did this in the year 1992 (Mansah et al., 2014). Nurses use this tool in order to improve the care that they give to individuals who live with dementia. Through observation, the nurse knows how to deal with the patient. The nurses understand that the dementia affects the psychosocial skills of the patient. It also affects their physical and cognitive abilities.
Only a few studies that address the efficacy of DCM and its subsequent implementation are available. The first study was carried out by Jeon and Chenoweth in 2007 (Jeone and Chenoweth, 2007). On the other hand, the second study was carried out by Chenoweth, King, Jeon, Brodaty, Stein-Parbury, Norman, and Luscombe in 2009 (Chenoweth et al., 2009). The first study found that outcomes from DCM made nurses give more attention to their patients than before. On the other hand, the second study found that DCM made nurses less agitated with people living with dementia than before.
When the researchers conducted the study, their central aim was to explore the experience that nursing assistants had when their duties exposed them to Dementia Care Mapping. Additionally, they wanted to find ways to improve the care of older residents in a care facility that is purely for the aged patients. The study revealed that nursing assistants appreciate the usefulness of Dementia Care Mapping (Mansah et al., 2014). Reasonably, DCM enables them to be innovative and improve the outcome of the care. Moreover, the nursing assistants acknowledged that they felt that they had more power and enhanced confidence than before, hence connected with the resident.
The study is significant to nursing because of a number of reasons. First, it provides the challenges that exist when employing the services of assistant nurses who are not qualified enough (Mansah et al., 2014). Secondly, it gives the feedback on the use of DCM that is a relatively new phenomenon. Three, it gives nursing directors, supervisors, and assistants information to use to improve their practice.
Nevertheless, there is still need for more inquiry. From the discussion, there arise two critical questions.
- Can assistant nurses employ the science that they use in DCM in other specialties as well?
- Does using DCM have any challenges?
References
Chenoweth, L., & Jeon, Y. H. (2007). Determining the efficacy of dementia care mapping as an outcome measure and a process for change: a pilot study. Aging and Mental Health, 11(3), 237-245.
Chenoweth, L., King, M. T., Jeon, Y. H., Brodaty, H., Stein-Parbury, J., Norman, R., & Luscombe, G. (2009). Caring for Aged Dementia Care Resident Study (CADRES) of person-centred care, dementia-care mapping, and usual care in dementia: a cluster-randomised trial. The Lancet Neurology, 8(4), 317-325.
Mansah, M., Coulon, L., Brown, P., Reynolds, H., &Kissiwaa, S. (2014). Tailoring Dementia Care Mapping and Reflective Practice to empower Assistants in Nursing to provide quality care for residents with dementia. AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, 31(4), 34-44.
