Educating nursing assistants to communicate more effectively with nursing home residents with dementia

This article describes the development and evaluation of a Nursing Assistan t Communication Skills Program (NACSP). NACSP was designed to help nursing assistants (NAs) interact more effectively with nursing home residents with moderate and severe dementia. In two skilled-care nursing homes, NAs in fo ur units were randomly assigned by unit to NACSP or to a wait-list control condition (UC) and were assessed at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. NACSP resulted in improvement in the well-being of nursing home residents being cared for by NAs who had received the NACSP training. It was also found tha t NACSP resulted in greater knowledge of caregiving responses and reduced t urnover rates among NAs, but the program had no impact on their knowledge o f dementia. To disseminate the NACSP program, a leader manual, an accompany ing training videotape, and a workbook for participants were developed.