More specialist dementia nurses needed, says RCN

Published: 25 March 2013

The Royal College of Nursing and the University of Southampton have published a new report that calls for greater support, funding and training for specialist dementia nurses.

The report Scoping the Role of Dementia Nurse Specialists in Acute Care highlights the significant contribution dementia nurse specialists could make in hospital settings.

Research has found that if dementia specialist nurses were properly funded and trained, they could reduce hospital stays for older people by one day on average, saving almost £11,000,000 a year. 

The report recommends that there should be at least one whole-time dementia specialist nurse for every 300 hospital admissions for people with dementia. 

“Dementia is one of the biggest issues facing the country and it is an issue that the health service cannot afford to ignore,” said Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary.

“Evidence from other areas of the health service shows how effective specialist nurses can be in improving the lives of patients and also raising awareness of the needs of patients with dementia with other health care staff.

“Their expertise can improve patient care as well as providing real long-term savings,” added Dr Carter.

Dinah Cox, newly appointed Head of RCN Foundation, which funded the report, said: “We are proud to support the RCN’s programme of work on dementia. The RCN Foundation’s work focuses on working in partnership with organisations and individuals on innovative projects which will make a difference to the health and wellbeing of the public. 

"As a registered charity that supports nursing to transform service delivery and provide quality patient care, we look forward to working on similar initiatives in the future.”

Download the report summary (PDF 435.97KB) [see how to access PDF files]