Dementia Care Training for Nurses in Nursing Facilities in Singapore

Background: Singapore has a fast-growing aged population and increasing numbers of dementia patients. The heavy burden of dementia nursing care imposes challenges on the nursing workforce. The aim of this study is to describe the current situation of nurses’ dementia care training.

Methods: This study reviewed literature and policy documents to investigate the nurse’s profile, nurse education mechanisms, and the social and political support for nurse training in Singapore. Additionally, by conducting in-depth interviews with 17 nurses, this study investigated the current dementia care training status in selected nursing facilities, and obtained nurses’ views on desired training, barriers and challenges for obtaining dementia care training.

Results: This study found that Singapore has established a mature nurse education model consists of advanced school education and well-designed continuing education. A supportive social environment was established to cultivate nurses and enhance nursing professionalism. Nurses expressed that existing dementia care training is insufficient with low frequency, unsatisfied curriculum contents, and unreasonable candidate selection. Besides, the shortage of workforce, the high turnover rate and overlook of nurses’ needs in designing course content were viewed as challenges for providing and obtaining training.

Conclusions: This study portrays the situation of nurses’ professional training on dementia care in Singapore. The findings emphasize the value of fostering nurses’ dementia care training with higher frequency, need-oriented contents and reasonable candidate selection method. Results generated in this study lay the foundation for future research, policy analysis, and regulation establishment, hence, to improve nurse training and to ensure responsive dementia care services.