Simulation as an innovative approach in dementia caregiver education: A literature review

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Simulation has well been used for training healthcare professional; however, such innovative approach in dementia caregiver education is still at infancy. This study aims to review the application of simulation in the education of dementia family caregiver regarding the simulation modality, skills trained and outcomes. METHOD: Keywords including "caregiv*", "simulation" and "caregiver education" were used for searching in PubMed, CIHNAL, Medline, Psyinfo and Embase databases. Publications were searched up to 2021 and 7 studies were reviewed. RESULT: Studies were conducted in US, Netherland, Canada and South Korea of sample size ranging from 28 to 264. Study designs included RCT, quasi experimental and non-experimental. Virtual reality was employed to enhance empathy and competency of caregivers; simulated patient (SP) was employed to enhance communication skill and problem-solving technique; low-fidelity simulator (Dementia LiveTM ) was employed to enhance empathy and problem solving. Outcomes included improvement in empathy, caregiving competency and decreased use of emotion-focused and avoidance-focused coping. None of the studies provided detailed simulation design. CONCLUSION: Simulation as an innovative approach may inform nursing intervention in dementia care. Nurses could incorporate simulation into psychoeducation to enhance dementia family caregivers' self-efficacy. Communication skill, problem-solving technique and behavioral problem can be addressed through therapeutic simulation with the use of SP methodology (Sadvoy et al, 2020). Scenario design should be person-centered and simulation design should be stringent. Experimental studies are urged to determine the effectiveness.