Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Purpose: Dementia is the top chronic condition necessitating relocation to long-term care (LTC). Physiological changes can negatively impact nutritional intake, while behaviour changes can increase nutritional needs, contributing to risk of malnutrition and adverse health outcomes. Nutritional health of LTC residents with dementia is central to quality care and quality of life. Most direct resident care in LTC is performed by care aides with limited training in nutrition and dementia who rely on task-specific care processes. This research explored best practices in nutrition care for residents with dementia from the perspective of care aides. Methods: Four LTC homes participated in this project, 2 urban and 2 rural. Care aides were invited to participate via posters circulated at each of the participating LTC homes. Two focus group discussions were conducted with care aides at each of the LTC homes, for a total of 43 care aides participating in 8 focus group discussions. Discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed. Data analysis was performed according to framework analysis, with attention to difference between urban and rural location. Results: Findings were organized into 6 thematic areas: balancing residents' care needs, experiential learning, operationalizing person-centered care, coping strategies, competing demands, and perception of nutrition care. Each thematic area encompasses aspects of the LTC environment that directly influences nutritional care performed by care aides. Implications: Multiple factors impact nutritional care practices within LTC. These findings indicate a strong need for RDs in supporting nutrition care for residents with dementia in LTC; enhanced training, greater coordination of nutrition care, supportive supervision, and adaptive mentoring may help care aides in performing nutrition care for residents with dementia. As well rurality is a relevant factor to consider when planning interventions or quality improvement initiatives