MANAGING THE PROBLEM BEHAVIORS OF PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE (AD) IN LONG TERM CARE: AN EVALUATION OF NURSE AIDE STRESS AND TURNOVER.
Contributors: Texas A & M University.
Published: 1996
Number of pages: 111
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Education.; Education, Higher.; Psychology, Industrial.
Description: Many sources indicate that nurse aide caregivers in long term care have the lowest level of education and preemployment preparation in the health care field. The burden and stress of providing 80 to 90 percent of direct care for patients with Alzheimer's disease often results in high annual turnover rates (Cohn, Horgas & Marsiske, 1990).

The research problem addresses the continuing education needs of nurse aides who work in long term care. Demographic shifts occurring in the elderly population call for adequately prepared caregivers. Strategies to manage the emotional and behavioral problems manifested by patients with Alzheimer's disease remain underdeveloped. The continuing education curriculum in this study focused on communication skills for nurse aides caregivers in long term care.

Two hypotheses were tested: (1) There will be no difference in the amount of change in nurse aide caregiver stress between the experimental and the control groups on the Caregiver Stress Inventory (CSI) questionnaire. (2) There will be no difference between the experimental and the control groups when the turnover rates are measured one month after the posttest administration.

A pretest, posttest quasi experimental design was used with a convenience sample of certified nurse aides (N = 46). The experimental group received three one hour continuing education sessions. The curriculum design featured videotaped vignettes, mini lectures, and role playing exercises to provide relevant experiential learning activities.

The findings suggested there is a significant difference in the stress of the two groups for the overall 43 item Caregiver Stress Inventory (CSI), based on the analysis of covariance. The control group reflected a significant increase in stress, however, the experimental group remained at relatively the same level of stress. The findings related to turnover suggested continuing education decreased turnover rates for nurse aides in long term care.

Conclusions reached suggested that nurse aides benefit from continuing education programs that focus on communications strategies. Recommendations for nursing practice were offered for groups such as nurse aide educators, certification boards, and administrators of long term care with emphasis on the need to establish mandated statewide continuing education programs. Recommendations for nursing research noted the need to determine and evaluate distraction strategies for managing the aggressive behaviors of patients with Alzheimer's disease.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-08, Section: B, page: 4976.

Thesis (PH.D.)--TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY, 1996.

School code: 0803.