Physicians' perceptions of their role in treating dementia-related behavior problems in the nursing home: actual practice and the ideal
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Jiska Cohen-Mansfield1, Barbara Jensen
1Research Institute on Aging of the Charles E Smith Life Communities, Rockville, MD 20852, USA. cohen-mansfield@hebrew-home.org
Objectives:
To describe physicians' perceptions of their role in treating the behavior problems associated with dementia that commonly occur in the nursing home, both the way it is currently and the way they think it should be.
Design:
This is a descriptive study presenting responses to a Web-based questionnaire.
Participants:
Participants were 110 physicians who provide services in nursing homes.
Measurements:
Likert-type ratings of items pertaining to the role of the physician in treating behavior problems in nursing homes, with respect to both current and ideal practices.
Results:
Physicians perceived the most characteristic part of both their current and ideal role to be determining if there is a treatable medical problem that is causing the behavior. They rated referral to a mental health specialist as the least important aspect of their current role, but rated prescribing psychotropic medication as the item they thought should be least important. Ideally, physicians believed that all aspects of their current role in treating behavior problems should increase except for prescribing psychotropic medication. Gender and for-profit/public/nonprofit status were the demographic and facility characteristics that were most likely to influence physicians' ratings on individual items.
Conclusion:
Physicians believe that most aspects of their involvement in treating behavior problems associated with dementia in nursing homes should increase, the exception being prescription of psychotropic medication.
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