Assistant professor earns grant from the Foundation for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine.
Rachel McPherson, PhD, MA, assistant professor, has received a $23,000 grant from the Foundation for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care (PALTC) Medicine for her study, “Pilot Testing the Fostering Positive Care Interactions.”
McPherson’s study focuses on the growing population of dementia patients residing in assisted living facilities and how limited social interactions of these patients can impact quality care interactions with staff.
Communication and staff-resident interactions are integral to care delivery in assisted living communities, and particularly critical for residents living with dementia. The purpose of this study is to improve the quality of staff-resident care interactions particularly among residents living with dementia by testing the Fostering Positive Care Interactions in Assisted Living (FPCI-AL) intervention.
The study aims to:
- establish the acceptability and feasibility of the FPCI-AL based on delivery, receipt, and enactment of study activities
- evaluate the preliminary efficacy of the FPCI-AL on the quality of care interactions received by residents, behavioral symptoms, resistiveness to care, and resident engagement with staff during care interactions.
The findings from this study will provide important feasibility data and some preliminary support for the effectiveness of implementation of the FPCI-AL to improve care interactions in assisted living and improve resident outcomes such as decreased behavioral symptoms, decreased resistiveness to care, and optimized engagement in care tasks.