![Sample our Health and Social Care journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5938/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Health-Social-Care.jpg"})
Abstract
Background: Care providers’ interactions with residents are an important element in long-term care settings. This study aimed at examining the association between care providers’ relational behaviors and affect and mood of residents with dementia over different caregiving situations and with different residents.
Methods: This study utilized a repeated-measures design. Thirty-eight residents with a diagnosis of dementia and 35 care providers from three nursing homes in Ontario, Canada, participated in the study. Care providers’ relational behaviors and residents’ mood and affect were assessed using direct observation methods and self-rating scales.
Results: The care providers’ relational behavior varied according to the caregiving situation, with the most effective relational behaviors observed during interpersonal interactions and the least effective during mealtimes. Less effective relational behaviors were observed between care providers and residents that were perceived as more resistive to care. In addition, effective relational behaviors were associated with positive mood and affect of the residents.
Conclusion: These findings emphasize the importance of acknowledging and enhancing care providers’ relational behaviors when caring for persons with dementia living in long-term care settings.
Acknowledgements
This project was made possible by the support of the Alzheimer Society of Canada, Canadian Nurses Foundation, the Nursing Care Partnership of the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, the CIHR Institute of Aging and the CIHR Institute of Gender and Health.
