The influence of understanding diagnostics on perceived stress of nurses caring for nursing home residents with dementia

Health services for nursing home residents with dementia require the expertise of highly trained nursing staff. In addition, dealing with challenging behaviour of people with dementia is often stressful for nurses and causes major difficulties for them. Being a part of the general nursing guidelines, ?understanding diagnostics? enables nursing staff to deal with challenging behaviour of persons with dementia. The primary focus of the concept is to understand the behaviour. The aim of the study was to implement and evaluate ?understanding diagnostics? through structured case conferences and the application of the 'Innovative dementia-oriented Assessment system' (IdA) in nursing homes for the first time. Nursing staff of 15 nursing homes in North- Rhine Westphalia were trained about the content and implementation of ?understanding diagnostics?. Nurses' perceived level of stress was measured before (n = 106) and after (n = 71) the intervention (9 months). The study results show positive effects on the nurses' perceived level of stress. They support the use of structured case conferences and the IdA assessment in order to understand the behaviour of nursing residents with dementia. The implementation of ?understanding diagnostics? allows nursing staff to deal with challenging behaviour of nursing home residents with dementia.