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By: Melissa LaRoche, Advanced Practice Nurse in Geriatrics, Queensway Carleton Hospital & Kelly Spence, Communications Coordinator, Queensway Carleton Hospital

Understanding the Meaning Behind Dementia Related Responsive Behaviour in a Hospital Setting

At Queensway Carleton Hospital, Geriatrics is one of our cornerstone programs – and we proudly serve our aging community in Ottawa and the surrounding area. Our staff and physicians are committed to not only taking care of but to improving the lives of those patients, always striving to ensure they get the care they need.

Meet Kelly MacGregor, a Behaviour Support Ontario (BSO) RN at Queensway Carleton Hospital. She has been awarded a $15,000 funding grant from the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) Advanced Clinical Practice Fellowship. Obtaining this grant is a significant achievement for QCH as Kelly MacGregor's proposal competed with many high-quality submissions from hospitals and health organizations across Ontario.

This innovative project is taking place on our Alternative Level of Care (ALC) unit at QCH. Kelly is working closely with the frontline multidisciplinary team, including nurses, physicians, PCA's and allied health professionals, as well as seeking input from patients and families. Kelly began her project on September 13, 2021 and is focusing her work full time on this fellowship for the next 12 weeks, to be completed in December.

The objectives for this project are to:

• Identify the current prevalence of responsive behaviour and staff injury related to responsive behaviour on the ALC unit
• Assess and evaluate multidisciplinary staff safety concerns working on the unit
• Identify current level of specialized training of staff on unit and opportunity to facilitate future education

The goal of Kelly's project is to support safe patient care, decrease incidents of responsive behaviour, decrease staff injuries related to that behaviour, and improve both job satisfaction and comfort level caring for people with dementia and responsive behaviours in an acute care setting.

Kelly has been working as a Registered Nurse at QCH for 19 years. She has always been very passionate about caring for people with dementia. Kelly has continuously over the years expanded her education in specialized geriatrics and dementia care, including a certification from the Canadian Nurses Association Certification (CNA) in Gerontological nursing, and has completed the McMaster University/RGP Geriatric Certificate.

Last year, QCH RN Christine Cook was awarded this grant for her project, which focused on transitioning patients with dementia.

Both projects focus on improving the care of patients with dementia within our healthcare system. Melissa Laroche, Advanced Practice Nurse in Geriatrics at QCH, serves as a mentor to both MacGregor and Cook.

Congratulations Kelly, we are looking forward to seeing the results of this project at QCH and how it will have a positive impact on the frontline staff and patients with dementia and responsive behaviours in an acute care setting.