Don't Forget: Care Plans for Dementia

Dementia can be a devastating diagnosis, and is clinically and financially burdensome. It is also a diagnosis for which care plans are not typically used. High-quality evidence gathered from a systematic search of the literature reveals that the standard use of care plans is associated with improved quality of life and increased provider satisfaction for disease processes such as heart failure and hypertension. Drawing on knowledge from experts in the field, a dementia-centric care plan template was created for this project, with emphasis on ease of use and reduced clinician burden, based on Bandura’s Social Learning Theory and built around the framework of Lewin’s Change Model. Nine geriatrics clinicians in the Southwestern United States were surveyed for self-satisfaction and self-efficacy, using the Implementation Self-Efficacy for Evidence-Based Practice (ISE4EBP) scale and a brief satisfaction survey, before and after 12 weeks of the template’s use, with all human subjects protections pertaining. Descriptive and summary statistics were performed on the data to stratify perceived self-efficacy across education levels and years of experience. The results were consistent in the paper care plan template having no significant bearing on self-efficacy, and it was recommended that the template be implemented into the electronic medical record in future, for effectiveness.