Office of Undergraduate Research

Development of a Communication Focused Module on Person-centered Care

This project is the third phase of a study on personhood and effective communication with persons with dementia.In this phase, the objective is to develop an intervention protocol for nursing home staff on communication behaviors that are person-centered. Conversations (n=46) between 13 staff-residents dyads over 12 weeks have been transcribed and coded for twice: (1) for person-centered communication and for language-based strategies that have been recommended as successful or effective with persons with dementia. The next step is to examine the overlap between utterances that are person-centered and effective language-based strategies. This overlap will serve as the basis for the development of the intervention protocol. Another critical component of intervention development is to conduct a thorough literature review of (a) communication interventions in long-term care settings, and (b) studies on person-centered care in long-term care settings.

Tasks and responsibilities:

It is important to review this literature to showcase why this intervention is a unique contribution to the field. Specifc tasks include the development on an Endnote database that has summaries of communication interventions and studies on person-centered care in long-term care settings.The student will also review and edit presentations and written reports resulting from the study's findings. The nature of the student collaborator's involvement reflects a range of activities that will help her actively think critically to find patterns in the literature. I am committed to providing the student collaborator unique opportunities to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on effective communication with persons with dementia.