?Now I understand you?: Changes in the Communication of Professionals in Nursing Homes After Receiving Training in the Validation Method

摘要

Caring for older persons is a challenge for profes-sionals who work in nursing homes. Problems in main-taining effective communication with a person with dementia in an effort to understand their needs is a major barrier to good care. Therefore, the main goals of this study were to explore communication barri-ers between professionals and people with dementia and to observe changes in communication patterns between them after completing Naomi Feil's introduc-tory training in the bases of the validation method (BVM). The 11 professionals who worked in nursing homes attended a 16-hour introductory course on BVM. Participants were interviewed individually three times. The goal was to observe qualitatively the chang-es in relationships and communication patterns with people with dementia. The results were analyzed the-matically. The professionals highlighted how, after the training, they had a different understanding of the per-son with dementia and a more humane perspective. These changes also reflected how the professionals experienced improvements in job satisfaction, secu-rity, and confidence. This study concluded that train-ing nursing home staff in BVM for person-centered and human care has positive implications on how the professionals view their daily work and their way of interacting with older residents.