Making sense of self-reported practice impacts after online dementia education: the example of Bedtime to Breakfast and Beyond

• Published in: Brain impairment 2020-12, Vol.21 (3), p.299-313
• Main Authors: Goodenough, Belinda, Watts, Jacqueline, Bartlett, Sarah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dementia; Distance learning; Elder care; Endorsements; Knowledge; Neurological disorders; Online instruction; Professional education; Quality of life; Sleep; Workforce
• ISSN: 1443-9646; 1839-5252
• DOI: 10.1017/BrImp.2020.19

Objectives:To satisfy requirements for continuing professional education, workforce demand for access to large-scale continuous professional education and micro-credential-style online courses is increasing. This study examined the Knowledge Translation (KT) outcomes for a short (2 h) online course about support at night for people living with dementia (Bedtime to Breakfast), delivered at a national scale by the Dementia Training Australia (DTA).Methods:A sample of the first cohort of course completers was re-contacted after 3 months to complete a KT follow-up feedback survey (n = 161). In addition to potential practice impacts in three domains (Conceptual, Instrumental, Persuasive), respondents rated the level of Perceived Improvement in Quality of Care (PIQOC), using a positively packed global rating scale.Results:Overall, 93.8% of the respondents agreed that the course had made a difference to the support they had provided for people with dementia since the completion of the course. In addition to anticipated Conceptual impacts (e.g., change in knowledge), a range of Instrumental and Persuasive impacts were also reported, including workplace guidelines development and knowledge transfer to other staff. Tally counts for discrete KT outcomes were high (median 7/10) and explained 23% of the variance in PIQOC ratings.Conclusions:Online short courses delivered at a national scale are capable of supporting a range of translation-to-practice impacts, within the constraints of retrospective insight into personal practice change. Topics around self-assessed knowledge-to-practice and the value of positively packed rating scales for increasing variance in respondent feedback are discussed.