Innovative dementia simulation training helps Grey Nuns staff understand and empathize with patients

Karilynn (Kari) Rajotte, a clinical nurse educator at the Grey Nuns Community Hospital, is helping staff understand and empathize with patients who have dementia.

“It's about walking in their shoes, even if just for a moment,” she says.

Kari recently led a series of innovative dementia simulation training sessions for the medicine program at the hospital as part of its annual staff education initiatives. The training, supported by the Covenant Health simulation team, immerses participants in a world that mimics the sensory and cognitive challenges of the illness to simulate what an individual might experience when receiving care as a patient and help participants better equip themselves to provide person-centred care. It covers concepts like de-escalation and redirection, featuring an actor to assist participants with the simulated activities.

During the training, participants play the role of patients with dementia with their senses altered through various means, such as wearing goggles that simulate the loss of peripheral vision. Common scenarios are also acted out, including feeding, hair brushing and communication attempts between staff and patients.

The subject matter for the training was chosen collectively from staff input. Through various surveys as well as discussions and observations on the unit, staff determined there was a need for more education specifically related to dementia care.

As the lead for the dementia simulation training, Kari agrees that this type of education was needed for staff. In fact, she says it had been a professional goal of hers for some time to take more dementia education and then pass it on to her colleagues.

“To be honest, throughout my career, working with people with dementia had always been very challenging. I felt like I didn’t always have the tools I needed,” Kari says.

In the fall of 2022, Kari took the initiative to seek out training to better equip herself for dementia patient care. She became certified as a trainer in the Positive Approach to Care method in January 2023. She then began to offer the training to fellow staff at the Grey Nuns.

Symone Dhariwal-Verma, a patient safety consultant at the hospital, took part in the training and can attest to the profound impact it had on staff.

“So many of the staff who have gone through this training have articulated to me that if they had known this material, it would have changed the way they cared for their patients or even their own family members in the past,” says Symone.

Leslie Pallier Winter, an assistant with the e-simulation program at Alberta Health Services, filled in for an actor during the training. She found the style of immersive education to be eye-opening.

“Having some of your senses taken away and changed to simulate things like lack of motor skills and neuropathy to feel what patients are feeling is important because it can be hard to imagine that,” she says.

Symone believes that as our population ages, the need for sensitive and informed care for individuals with dementia is becoming increasingly critical. The style of care being taught in this training fits with the concept of patient and family centred care that Covenant Health continues to move towards through many other initiatives, says Symone.

For Kari, this kind of training also leads to more compassionate care. “I think putting yourself in a person's shoes can really help increase your empathy and compassion for somebody without having to actually go through it yourself. To care better, we must understand better.”