Drama techniques supporting nursing students to care for patients with dementia

Student nurses are being taught how to work with people with dementia using drama techniques as part of a new project.

Nursing lecturer Laura Hawley, based at the University of Huddersfield, has started a new project which aims to enhance expertise in future nurses working with dementia patients by using applied drama techniques.

The use of drama, alongside actor training techniques and puppetry, focuses on improving communication and person-centred care.

Ms Hawley, who has specialised in actor training and applied theatre in a previous role as a performing arts teacher, has used her ongoing doctorate into active training techniques and applied drama to develop a series of workshops with students and staff to train undergraduate nurses studying dementia care.

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Following workshops at the University of Chichester and the University of Portsmouth, and a workshop delivered to Gwennies, a dementia charity based in Slaithwaite, Ms Hawley said the feedback has been positive.

‘The work was of real insight and benefit to our students, she said. ‘Students commented on how the techniques used are transferable across all healthcare education.

‘What we do is very much about using actor training and applied drama techniques in the teaching of nursing, not bringing in drama students. The aim is to embed these techniques in the teaching of nursing, and across all health-related courses.

‘Using these techniques can really change the way mental health and dementia nursing is taught and can really enhance the curriculum.

‘These scenarios we work in with the students are person-centred and focus on really communicating with the patient.’

The former mental health nurse said the rehearsal process used by actors parallels what nurses do by having ‘an awareness’ about communication.

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‘The level, the tone, the volume of your voice, how you physically present yourself and what the impact of that is are all factors,’ she said.

‘But 80% of our communications are non-verbal, so confidence is important. We have seen a lack of confidence in how to communicate in our students, which this is addressing.

‘We lose a lot of nurse and healthcare professionals due to burnout that is connected to confidence, so it is something that needs addressing while our students are still learning.’

Ms Hawley hopes her project can ‘address a gap’ in the teaching of dementia care.

She said: ‘We are leading the way in exploring innovative and exciting new approaches to nurse and health education and students and staff alike can benefit.

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‘Now we have the dementia part, teaching that is the first of its kind, which is a specialist area but this method of teaching using applied drama techniques we feel is transferable across nursing and other health-related courses.’

Students involved in the workshops also gained experience from placements with the charity Gwennie’s, which runs a weekly Memory Café in the village.