• Mona Söderlund, Astrid Norberg, and Görel Hansebo.
• Department of Health Care Sciences, Ersta Sköndal University College, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
• Int J Older People Nurs. 2014 Mar 1;9(1):79-89.

BackgroundTraining nursing staff in communication skills can impact on the quality of care for residents with dementia and contributes to nurses' job satisfaction. Changing attitudes and practices takes time and energy and can affect the entire nursing staff, not just the nurses directly involved in a training programme. Therefore, it seems important to study nurses' experiences of a training programme and any influence of the programme on work climate among the entire nursing staff.Aims And ObjectivesTo explore nurses' experiences of a 1-year validation method training programme conducted in a nursing home for residents with dementia and to describe ratings of work climate before and after the programme.DesignA mixed-methods approach.MethodsTwelve nurses participated in the training and were interviewed afterwards. These individual interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed, then analysed using qualitative content analysis. The Creative Climate Questionnaire was administered before (n = 53) and after (n = 56) the programme to the entire nursing staff in the participating nursing home wards and analysed with descriptive statistics.ResultsAnalysis of the interviews resulted in four categories: being under extra strain, sharing experiences, improving confidence in care situations and feeling uncertain about continuing the validation method. The results of the questionnaire on work climate showed higher mean values in the assessment after the programme had ended.ConclusionThe training strengthened the participating nurses in caring for residents with dementia, but posed an extra strain on them. These nurses also described an extra strain on the entire nursing staff that was not reflected in the results from the questionnaire. The work climate at the nursing home wards might have made it easier to conduct this extensive training programme.Implications For PracticeTraining in the validation method could develop nurses' communication skills and improve their handling of complex care situations.© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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