Tensions and ambiguities: A qualitative study of final year adult field nursing students' experiences of caring for people affected by advanced dementia in Wales, UK

SummaryBackgroundRising dementia prevalence means that general nurses globally will encounter more people affected by advanced dementia. Advanced dementia care is profoundly complex yet there is a paucity of research exploring how general nursing students experience and thus learn to care for those affected.ObjectivesTo explore final year nursing students' (adult field) experiences of caring for people affected by advanced dementia.DesignA qualitative design was adopted.SettingThe setting was Wales, UK.ParticipantsEleven final year nursing undergraduates (adult field).MethodData were collected using digitally recorded one-to-one in-depth interviews in 2013 and analysed using thematic analysis.ResultsParticipants' experiences fell within three main themes: they can be quite challenging; a lot of dementia patients are seen as hazards and it's not all about doing stuff. Participants aspired to person-centred care. However, they felt insufficiently prepared for what they believed was knowledgeable work requiring interpersonal competence and confidence. Participants appreciated that many practitioners, their clinical educators, were insufficiently prepared for advanced dementia care.ConclusionsThe study provided further evidence of the complexity of caring for those with advanced dementia and associated theory, practice and policy gaps. There are important implications for education in terms of curriculum development and learning from and in practice.