Exploring the Effectiveness the Attitude, Competence of Care, Empathy Among the Home Care Workers With Dementia People
Condition: Empathy; Attitude; Competence
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This study develop a new virtual reality course for home care workers to experience the view
      of dementia people with BPSD and the relative feelings. After the intervention, the
      experimental group would completed the several scales of attitude of care, competence of care
      and empathy, then the factor analysis and correlation analysis were measured.

      In the first stage, a single group pre and post test study was conducted to extract 10 home
      caregivers of dementia care from Hondao Senior Citizen's Welfare Foundation. In order to
      explore the VR course affect the attitude of care, competent of care and empathy towards the
      dementia people in community, and future career.

      In the second stage, this study use quasi experimental design. The experimental group (n=65)
      and the control group (n=65) each have a pre- and post-test design. The experimental group
      uses virtual reality courses for intervention experience, while the control group does not
      have intervention. After the two post-tests are completed, then provide the same immersive 3D
      VR experience as the experimental group. The measurement tools in this study used the
      Jefferson Empathy Scale (Chinese Version), The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Chinese
      Version), and three self-made scales focus on dementia care attitude scale, the dementia care
      competency scale and the virtual reality course experience scale.
    

Detailed description: 
      More than 90% of people with mild and moderate level of dementia live at home in the
      community. The behaviors and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) would be severe by
      age, and often increases the difficulty and pressure for family caregivers. Also the outcome
      from the relative studies are limited.

      This study develop a new virtual reality course for home care workers to experience the view
      of dementia people with BPSD and the relative feelings. After the intervention, the
      experimental group would completed the several scales of attitude of care, competence of care
      and empathy, then the factor analysis and correlation analysis were measured.

      In the first stage, a single group pre and post test study was conducted to extract 10 home
      caregivers of dementia care from Hondao Senior Citizen's Welfare Foundation. In order to
      explore the VR course affect the attitude of care, competent of care and empathy towards the
      dementia people in community, and future career.

      In the second stage, this study use quasi experimental design. The experimental group (n=65)
      and the control group (n=65) each have a pre- and post-test design. The experimental group
      uses virtual reality courses for intervention experience, while the control group does not
      have intervention. After the two post-tests are completed, then provide the same immersive 3D
      VR experience as the experimental group. The measurement tools in this study used three
      self-made scales focus on dementia care attitude scale, the dementia care competency scale
      and the virtual reality course experience scale and empathy scale. ANCOVA would be used for
      the correlation analysis above scales.

      Home care workers can use VR as an appropriate interventions, to empathize with the
      situation, faced and recognize the weakness, frustration and emotional distress of dementia
      people. Then change the attitude and arise the competency of care, also should be considered
      for ensure that patients with dementia stay in good care quality.
    

Intervention name(s): VR films
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): A new virtual reality course for home care workers to experience the view of dementia people with BPSD and the relative feelings.
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Health Services Research
Keywords: home caregivers, careers