A mapper's reflection on Dementia Care Mapping with older residents living in a nursing home.

Aim and objective. This paper explores reflection stemming from a Dementia Care Mapper's own learning and development concerning person-centred care with older residents living in a dementia specific nursing home. Background. Dementia Care Mapping has been employed in few Australian residential care facilities to promote person-centred care and the well-being of residents. Reflection has also been used selectively in some practices to improve and evaluate the care process. However, contemporary nursing literature has failed to highlight the usefulness of applying reflection following Dementia Care Mapping with older residents. Method. The mapper's reflections arose from the Dementia Care Mapping observation of five older residents and writing a daily reflective journal. Findings. From the reflection, a dominant major theme emerged named as the Learning Experience from Mapping Residents with two sub-themes entitled Mapper's Identification of Resident's Unique Needs and Mapper's Empowerment of Clinicians. Dementia Care Mapping recommendations from the mapper's experience highlighted effective approaches to conducting Dementia Care Mapping in residential care facilities. Conclusions. The valuable process of reflection to Dementia Care Mapping provided the mapper with clinical insights. Further from the mapper's final reflection, a poem entitled Come Back Mind, Come Back to Me was conceived and penned. Relevance to clinical practice. The mapper's engagement in ongoing reflection incorporated with Dementia Care Mapping has the potential to promote best practice for the care of older people living in aged care facilities.

Nurse practitioners' experiences of working collaboratively with general practitioners and allied health professionals in New South Wales, Australia.

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to explore contemporary collaborative experiences of nurse practitioners (NPs) in providing care with general practitioners (GPs) and allied health care professionals. DESIGN: A qualitative descriptive, exploratory design was considered the most appropriate to achieve the study objectives. This allowed the researcher at first hand to gain a thorough understanding of the nurse participants' experiences. SETTING: The study was conducted in urban, rural and remote clinics and hospitals throughout New South Wales, Australia, where the NPs were authorised to care for the community. PARTICIPANTS: Nine authorised NPs were the key participants in the study. RESULTS: Analysis identified one main theme of Collaboration and three sub themes that were named as Total Collaboration, Partial Collaboration and Non Collaboration. CONCLUSION: In this study, most NPs reported dissatisfaction from working in ineffective collaborative relationships with medical and allied health care professionals. Total collaboration did not automatically occur and was identified as the exception. Sustainable collaborative partnerships should be developed with all heath care providers by acknowledging each others unique, valuable contribution. Despite this challenging and complex situation, NSW NPs remained determined to provide advanced nursing care for patients and to establish and maintain effective collaboration with all health care professionals.