Building Clinical Leadership Competencies When Caring for Hospitalized Adults Experiencing Dementia.

PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES: Attempting to improve the experience of hospitalized adults with dementia and reduce patient attendant costs, we addressed hospital nursing staff confidence managing responsive behaviors through education, mentorship, and individualized patient care planning for adults with dementia.Responsive behaviors (such as pacing, calling out) is a term used to describe behaviors demonstrated by a person with dementia as a way of responding to something negative, frustrating, or confusing in their social and physical environment. DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT: Under time restraints, we performed a rapid environmental scan and developed internal clinical resources and a learning strategy that informed a quality improvement initiative that focused on dementia care of hospitalized patients. OUTCOME: Using quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods, the interventions increased confidence, competency, and leadership in clinical nursing leaders and improved person-centered care planning practices. The cost of patient attendant usage for this patient population decreased by 28% in 1 year. CONCLUSION: This intervention, which was not a copyrighted program associated with administration costs, improved hospital-based dementia care and staff confidence in dementia care and reduced annual costs associated with patient attendant useage.

Development and Validation of the Sexual Contingent Self-Worth Scale.

Sexual contingent self-worth (CSW) refers to self-worth that is dependent on maintaining a sexual relationship, and has not been studied previously. This novel construct may have implications for sexual, relationship, and psychological well-being, because it could affect the cognitions, affect, and behaviors of individuals in sexual relationships. The purpose of this study was to develop the Sexual Contingent Self-Worth Scale and examine its reliability and validity in community samples. Two separate online studies (N = 329 and N = 282) included men and women who were in committed, sexually active relationships. The Sexual CSW Scale was adapted from a validated measure of relationship CSW. In Study 1, participants completed the Sexual CSW Scale, whereas in Study 2, participants also responded to standardized measures of related constructs. In addition, participants completed the Sexual CSW Scale again two weeks later in Study 2. Factor analysis yielded two subscales: (a) sexual CSW dependent on positive sexual events in the relationship and (b) sexual CSW dependent on negative sexual events. Results indicated good construct validity, incremental validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability for the Sexual CSW Scale. This research contributes to the fields of both CSW and sexuality by introducing a novel domain of CSW.