Nursing Students’ Learning about Person-centred Dementia Care in a Nursing Home: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

It is unclear to what extent nursing students are able to apply person-centred care in practice, despite a mixture of educational support approaches. The aim of this study was to explore nursing students’ experiences of learning about person-centred dementia care after they participated in an adopted education programme in a nursing home. The education programme presented the main concepts of person-centred care. A qualitative explorative design was chosen where 32 bachelor-level nursing students participated in seven focus groups. The study is reported according to the COREQ checklist. Qualitative thematic content analysis revealed two main themes: care culture in the nursing home as joyful and inclusive, and the nursing student role as ambivalent and challenging. The nursing home management, staff members and patients, together with the programme, seemed to enhance students’ learning about person-centred dementia care.