Specialist Dementia Nurses in Hospital

[Skye]

I went to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley yesterday with our hospital development panel. They have a dementia specialist nurse there, funded initially by Alzheimer Scotland. NHS has to guarantee to take over the funding after the first three years. She’s an RMN, and has been an area manager for AS.

She’s not assigned to a ward, but can be called on by any nurse or auxiliary on any ward that has a patient with dementia – and that actually applies to all wards. Her role is mainly advisory, though she can spend as long as is necessary with a patient. She also undertakes some training, but she prefers to use hands-on experience, rather than formal training sessions.

She’s the first to admit that the hospital is poorly designed, and patients can have too many bed moves, and she tries to influence improvements, but her remit is really to work with what she’s got. She’s kept very busy.

She's also involved in discharge planning, and will accompany patients home to check how they manage.

She has access to both hospital and MHT files -- often nurses don't have access to MHT files.

It seems such a good idea, and one which hopefully will spread. We’re certainly hoping that we’ll be able to have one here, either an AS appointment or possibly the secondment of one of our new Dementia Champions.

 

[Mameeskye]

This is such a good start. I know that it is by no means the best service but it is the start of recognition and as such hopefully will start to act as a driver.

It is all down to funding. Part of me even wishes that they would increase taxes by a percentage to increase health service funding. We all tend to need it at some point in our lives. I'm willing to pay

Mameeskye

 

[Kazzette]

What a good start. This sort of thing is desperately needed. Mum had just spent 3 weeks in hospital and the level of understaning of dementia was shockingly abysmal. What I witnessed was awful. Twice I had to physically remove nurses hands from my Mother as they were holding her down trying to see to her without even talking to her. Some of the nurses objected to my being there taking care of her needs. It was like I had suddenly become incompetant. They got her meds wrong tried to continually feed her solids when she was on a liquid only diet. One nurse said that dementia patients were aware of what they were doing. Awareness in hospitals must be addressed.

 

[DianeB]

I wish the hospital that Mum was in had one of those nurses. As many of you know the disturbing shocking and truely disgraceful treatment and care my Mum received recently was totally unacceptable. To such a point that a formal complaint is going in very soon with the help of ICAS. Nobody should have to be treated like my Mum was and like you Kazzette I also stayed by my Mums side night and day for nearly 2 1/2weeks because they were incompitent and lacking any knowledge of dementia. I stayed to ensure her safety of which they could not guarantee (their own words!!!) What on earth is going to happen in years to come when they keep saying AD is on the increase, where will that leave any of us if we should get this ourselves.

 

[Skye]

Awareness in hospitals must be addressed.

What on earth is going to happen in years to come when they keep saying AD is on the increase, where will that leave any of us if we should get this ourselves.

You're both absolutely right! It appears every hospital has similar problems, and they're going to get worse.

I hope the scheme is going to spread. The dementia champions course for existing ward staff is also brilliant. Our infirmary was the first in Scotland to introduce the course, but other areas are going to take it up now. I don't know what the situation is in England.

You have to put pressure on your PCT, the local branch of AS is the best place to start.

Go for it, ladies!

 

[DianeB]

Does anybody know if an official petition has been started? Maybe thats another way to go forward as well?

There is one petition that is currently live

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to support the campaign by Terry Pratchett and the Alzheimer's Research Trust for a drastic increase in public funding for dementia research.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/terrypratchett/

 

[DianeB]

No waiting about I have started another petition, am awaiting it to be cleared. This is what I have put


Dementia is one of the most significant health issues facing the UK and the NHS. As the population ages, the numbers of people diagnosed with dementiais increasing, and are expected to double to 1.4 million over the next 30 years. Currently there is a huge shortage of specialist dementia nurses within our hospitals, because of this many patients with dementia are not getting the proper care and understanding when placed in hospital causing not only themselves but their loved ones a great deal of distress. This is a growing problem and it wont get any better unless more funds are available and more training is given. We need more specialist dementia nurses within our hospitals. Thank you.

When it goes live I will paste you all a link, although bear with me as I go away tomorrow for a week, so it may have to wait upon my return.

 

[alex]

Hi Hazel

I think this is a great idea and hopefully it will progress across all hospitals.
It would have been soooo good to be able to discuss my mums problems with a dementia nurse while she was in hospital (a professional who knows what they are talking about) as all the doctors just seemed to be guessing at the cause with no advice as to how best to deal with it - other than to prescribe haloperidol.

I'm surprised Helen (Amy) has not replied to this thread, as this is the area she'd like to specialize in once she completes her degree in nursing..........i'll forward a pm to her to take a look.

Well done Diane...........like many others here, i would be happy to sign any petition.

Love Alex x