Supporting practice in dementia care: evaluation of an education programme for district nurses

Education and support in the clinical setting promotes competence and confidence of staff as well as the provision of quality care. This paper will describe the development and evaluation of a dementia education programme that supported new clinical practice in dementia care for district nurses in an Australian context. Overall, staff who received training also required leadership at the clinical interface to support knowledge translation. Clinical nurse leaders in aged care were found to be an effective resource to facilitate learning and confidence when new practice was being introduced.