Elderly care nurses mostly work alone, without the possibility to share or discuss actual caring and nursing problems with colleagues. They may have access to information such as national guidelines and evidence based methods, but there are no clear routines for how to use this information.
Dalarna University in Sweden has, together with all 15 local authorities in the county of Dalecarlia, developed a knowledge centre for elderly health care. The aim is to support and coordinate work and care development in elderly health care, based on research and evidence based practice. The knowledge centre contributes support regarding processes and structures for knowledge dispersion and practical issues with a special focus on elderly care nurses.
The approach includes registered nurses on several levels working in close collaboration with the Senior Lecturer at the knowledge centre. The nurses indicate relevant nursing problems and participate in the knowledge process and the production of relevant information. If appropriate, the diploma work carried out by nursing students may contribute to the knowledge centre and be a part of the development of care practice.
Since the start of the centre in autumn 2010 work has focused on patient security, implementing national guidelines, routines for delegating health care duties to unqualified staff, i.e., care assistants, introduction- and mentor-programmes for newly employed registered nurses, support networks for nurses with responsibilities in dementia, diabetic care etc. The work has generated a number of ideas for diploma work for nursing students and some ideas for research have also been formulated.
Material produced by the University knowledge centre is available on a Swedish web-site www.du.se/kommunalvardutveckling with free access.
2012.
IFA (International Federation on Ageing), 11th Global Conference on Ageing, 28/5-1/6 2012. Prague.