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Geriatric Inclusive Art and Length of Stay in Acute Care Unit: A Case–Control Pilot Study
Author(s) -
Beauchet Olivier,
Remondière Samantha,
Mahé Micheline,
Repussard Florence,
Decavel Frederic,
Annweiler Cedric,
Beauchet Olivier,
Annweiler Cedric,
Mahé Micheline,
Repussard Florence
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2012.04069.x
Subject(s) - medicine , psychological intervention , deconditioning , acute care , health care , gerontology , physical therapy , nursing , economic growth , economics
College of Medicine at Pennsylvania State University used TimeSlips with a group of 20 persons with dementia living on the locked unit of a local retirement home. Students were trained in TimeSlips during classroom time and attended an educational session at the retirement community. During four visits, students used several TimeSlips pictures and took turns serving as facilitators, scribes, and storytellers with the residents. Preand posttests were given to students using the Dementia Attitudes Scale (DAS), a 20-item, paper-andpencil instrument with 7-point Likert-type responses. The scale queries students about their general perceptions of persons with ADRD and their own feelings toward this population. Four weeks passed between the administration of preand posttests to all students. Table 1 summarizes the results of comparisons of the DAS scores at item, subdomain, and scale level before and after the TimeSlips session. Except for one item (6. “I feel uncomfortable being around people with ADRD”), the other 19 items showed improvement after participation, and 12 items showed statistically significant improvement (P < .05). The two subdomains of the DAS also showed statistically significant improvement after the TimeSlips session, with 9.9% improvement in the knowledge domain and 24.1% improvement in the comfort domain. The overall DAS score also showed statistically significant improvement (16.0%). This study adds preliminary statistical data to confirm that an arts-based, creative storytelling activity can significantly improve attitudes toward persons with ADRD. Providing arts-based educational experiences for students may foster more-positive attitudes toward this population by removing participants from purely clinical interactions with aging persons and allowing less-formal relationships to evolve around a playful, co-creative activity. Such improved attitudes could contribute to students taking a less-reductionist and more-humanistic and psychosocially oriented approach to the care of older adults. Future interventions with longer study intervals are needed, particularly for students entering primary or geriatric care. Larger numbers of students and participants are necessary to reach statistical power, as well as randomized, controlled trials. Researchers might also consider examining before and after attitudes of persons with ADRD to evaluate their perceptions of medical students, as well as the overall effect on quality of life or other psychosocial modalities.