Patients living with dementia will benefit from two new certified trainers as a result of training now available to clinical staff of the Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB).

The BHB announced two new Clinical Nurse Educators on Friday, who are now certified Dementia Independent Trainers.

BHB Clinical Nurse Educators Tarmra Broadley and Marina Cann, attended the two-day course in Duluth, Georgia and recently received certification as PAC Certified Independent Trainers. 

A spokeswoman said: “The BHB has now been able to add the Positive Approach to Care to its training schedule for clinical staff.”

Nursing Staff Development Manager Synda Cook Roberts said: “Bringing the latest evidenced based approaches to care helps us improve our service to patients and the community.” Ms Broadley added: “In providing this training to staff, Marina and I actually feel that we are living BHB’s mission to provide safe, high-quality, people-centred, compassionate care every day.”

BHB Clinical Director of Continuing Care Services Granville Russell said it’s “wonderful” that the hospital’s clinical staff “can be trained in-house” in “practical patient-centred techniques that reduce the anxiety and confusion” that often comes with patients living with dementia, which “plays a significant role in keeping them healthy”.

The certification programme, was developed by Teepa Snow, a leading educator on dementia, who developed a technique called the ‘Positive Approach to Care’ (PAC), which gives practical instruction on how best to care for those living with dementia.

A BHB spokeswoman said the certification course had two main components:

  • A two-day workshop which included information on the PAC philosophy, dementia awareness, how adults learn through their experiences, in addition to practical skills development. These practical skills included training in some of Ms Snow’s unique techniques including Positive Physical Approach, and Hand-under-Hand-technique.
  • Eight weeks after the first component a demonstration of correct practical application by conducting two workshops using PAC techniques.
  • Photo: Courtesy of BHB Tamra Broadley (left) & Marina Cann (right)