Prior to patient recruitment, a 3 month dementia training program will be implemented on both the intervention and control units. On the intervention unit, training will target the Patient Engagement Specialists (PES) and on the control to the nurse assistants (please refer to NCT# 04179721 for more details on this aim). Following the implementation of the dementia care training, eligible patients will be offered the opportunity to participate in the study. A research coordinator will offer the information and opportunity to participate to the patient's lawful caregiver. The signed consent forms will be stored in secured file cabinets. Once a participant has been enrolled in the study, demographic information will be obtained from the electronic medical records (EMR) and verified by Family Caregiver (FCG), including: age, gender, race/ethnicity, marital status, education, work status, current living situation, medical comorbidities, and reason for admission. A member of the research team will conduct a short interview with the FCG to verify patient background information and obtain baseline (1 month prior to admission) functional status (Barthel Index), dementia severity cognitive (Clinical Dementia Rating Scale)(5 stages of severity: no 0, questionable 0.5, mild 1, moderate 2, and severe 3), and behavioral symptoms using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Clinical version NPI-C.
A member of the research team will then complete daily NPI-Qs to determine the number of behaviors and symptoms for each patient on a daily basis. The data collector will use a multimodal approach drawing from electronic medical record (EMR) notes and interviews with nursing staff regarding the patient's behavior and treatment over the past 24 hours. Delirium will be assessed daily by the research coordinator using same multimodal approach and during the time of NPI observation. A final EMR chart review will be conducted collecting information such as length of stay, discharge disposition, in-hospital mortality as well as total usage practices for management of BPSD: use of special observation (1:1 or enhanced), restraints, psychoactive medications, psychiatric evaluation. Within 48 hours of discharge, family caregivers will be interviewed regarding satisfaction with care using the Carer Questionnaire Data from the National Audit of Dementia Round 3.