Dementia Simulation: Medicine clinical education team

Karilynn Rajotte, Chantal Sankowski

Frontline staff in the medicine department at the Grey Nuns Community Hospital requested more experience and understanding about how to deal with patients living with dementia in an acute care setting. The clinical nurse educators, Karilynn Rajotte and Chantal Sankowski, learned more about this topic and then created a simulation learning plan to share information and techniques with staff in the program.

The dementia simulation team took staff beyond theoretical knowledge transfer and created an experience where staff engaged in the challenges faced by people living with dementia. Placing care providers in the patient’s shoes helped them see and feel what patients living with dementia see and feel. They limited staff’s senses. Actors posing as nurses used nonsense language with familiar speech patterns to demonstrate how brain failure causes the inability to understand language. With permission the actors/nurses fed staff/patients and did simple hygiene care with items the staff/patients may not recognize as correct.

This experiential learning approach helps staff appreciate the challenges faced by people living with dementia and promotes patient-centered care. It can contribute to reducing stigma. It has had a profound impact on frontline staff. This shared experience enhances knowledge retention, empathy and the ability to apply theoretical concepts in the real world. It also cultivates more compassion and an adaptable healthcare workforce leading to improved outcomes for patients.