The impact of dementia education on student paramedics’ preparedness to care, knowledge, confidence and attitudes towards dementia: an analytic survey

Abstract

Background: Paramedics play a vital role in the emergency healthcare of people living with dementia. People with dementia often have complex needs, posing challenges for paramedics. Paramedics often lack the confidence and skills to assess people with dementia appropriately, and receive little, if any, dementia education.Aims: To evaluate the impact of dementia education on student paramedics’ preparedness to care, knowledge, confidence and attitudes towards dementia.Methods: A 6-hour education programme on dementia was developed, implemented and evaluated. A pre-test‐post-test design using self-completion validated questionnaires was used, to evaluate first-year undergraduate student paramedics’ knowledge, confidence and attitudes towards dementia, as well as their preparedness to care for people with dementia.Results: A total of 43 paramedic students attended the education programme, with 41 fully completed questionnaires being collected pre-training and 32 post-training. Students reported feeling significantly more preparedness to care for people with dementia after the education session (p < 0.001). They felt their knowledge (100%), confidence (87.5%) and attitudes (87.5%) towards dementia had significantly increased following the education session. Using validated measures, the impact of education was found to be the highest on dementia knowledge (13.8 vs 17.5; p < 0.001) and on confidence (29.14 vs 34.06; p = 0.001), with only a minimal effect on attitudes (101.5 vs 103.4; p = 0.485). The education programme itself was well-evaluated.Conclusion: As paramedics are central to the emergency healthcare of people living with dementia, it is essential that the emerging paramedic workforce is equipped with the knowledge, attitudes and confidence to provide quality care for this population. We need to ensure dementia education is embedded in undergraduate curricula, and that consideration is given to the subjects, level and pedagogic approach taken to ensure positive outcomes are maximised.