Guidelines for Dementia Care: Awareness and current usage in Residential Aged Care

Published on: November 2, 2020

RESEARCH PROJECT
QUT Ethics Approval Number 2000000784

Updated Tuesday, 16 February 2021

This research project is being undertaken by the Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration (DCRC). The purpose of this research is to explore health professionals’ and health care workers’ awareness of the Clinical Practice Guidelines and Principles of care for people with Dementia (the Guidelines) and how the recommendations from the Guidelines are currently being applied into practice in residential aged care (RAC).

You are invited to participate in this research project because you are over the age of 18 years old and you are a health professional (registered nurse, enrolled nurse, allied health) or health worker (assistant in nursing, personal carer, personal care worker) who provides care to people with dementia in RAC.

Participation will involve completing an online survey with a combination of short answer responses and Likert scale answers (strongly agree – strongly disagree) that will take approximately 30 minutes of your time.

Questions will include:

  • Have you read or used the Clinical Practice Guidelines (Yes – No)
  • How Useful have you found the content of the Guidelines (1-Not useful at all – 4-Very useful)
  • Please describe what format would make it easier to access information in the Guidelines.

At the completion of the survey, you will be asked if you would consider participating in an online focus group or interview to explore these topics in greater depth. If you indicate that you are interested, you will be provided with a copy of the Interview Participant Information Sheet and asked to provide your best contact details for a member of the research team to contact you. Your contact details will not be linked to your responses to the survey and will be saved to a secure server at QUT.

Your participation in this research project is entirely voluntary. If you agree to participate you do not have to complete any question(s) you are uncomfortable answering. Your decision to participate or not participate will in no way impact upon your current or future relationship with QUT or your place of employment. If you do agree to participate you can withdraw from the research project during your participation without comment or penalty. However, as the survey does not request any personal identifying information, once it has been submitted it will not be possible to withdraw.

You will be able to review your responses before submitting.

It is expected that this research project could improve your knowledge of the Guidelines and therefore directly benefit you. A link to the Guidelines will be provided to you at the end of the survey. The outcomes of this study will inform the revision of the Guidelines to a more user-friendly format. A summary of the findings from this research will be published in the Australian Journal for Dementia Care.

To recognise your contribution should you choose to participate the research team is offering you a free copy of the ‘travel size’ book A Clinician’s Field Guide to Good Practice (Burns et al., 2014) to be sent to you free of charge as a token of our appreciation. Details of how to request a copy will be found at the end of the survey.

There are no risks beyond normal day-to-day living associated with your participation in this research project.
All comments and responses are anonymous i.e. it will not be possible to identify you at any stage of the research, because personal identifying information is not sought in any of the responses.

Any data collected as part of this research project will be stored securely as per QUT’s Management of research data policy. Data will be stored for a minimum of 5 years, and can be disclosed if it is to protect you or others from harm, if specifically required by law, or if a regulatory or monitoring body such as the ethics committee requests it. Anonymous data collected during this project may be used as comparative data in future studies.

The research project is funded by the DCRC. Only members of the research team will have access to the data obtained during the project. A report of findings will be provided to the DCRC at the end of the project.

At the start of the survey you will be asked if you give consent to participating in this project. The submission or return of the completed survey is accepted as confirmation of your consent to participate in this research project.
If you have any questions or require further information please contact one of the listed researchers:

Dr Margaret MacAndrew
margaret.macandrew@qut.edu.au
07 3138 5956

Ms Kim Burns
k.burns@unsw.edu.au

Dr Lidan Zheng
l.zheng@neura.edu.au

Nikki-Ann Wilson
n.wilson@neura.edu.au

QUT is committed to research integrity and the ethical conduct of research projects. If you wish to discuss the study with someone not directly involved, particularly in relation to matters concerning policies, information or complaints about the conduct of the study or your rights as a participant, you may contact the QUT Research Ethics Advisory Team on +61 7 3138 5123 or email humanethics@qut.edu.au.
Principal Researcher: Dr Margaret MacAndrew, Lead Investigator, School of Nursing, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology
Associate Researchers: Ms Kim Burns, Co-Investigator, Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales
Dr Lidan Zheng, Co-Investigator, NeuRA, University of New South Wales
Dr Kate Laver, Co-Investigator, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University
Dr Sue Kurrle, Co-Investigator, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney
Dr Christine While, Co-Investigator, Dementia Training Australia, La Trobe University
Professor Elizabeth Beattie, Co-Investigator, School of Nursing, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology
Professor Henry Brodaty, Co-Investigator, Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales
Professor Kaarin Anstey, Co-Investigator, NeuRA, University of New South Wales
Nikki-Ann Wilson, Co-Investigator, NeuRA, University of New South Wales

Thank you for helping with this research project. Please download this information and complete the survey on the links below:

Complete the Online Survey Download the Information for Participants