
Elaine FieldingQueensland University of Technology | QUT · School of Nursing
Elaine Fielding
PhD
About
49
Publications
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
January 1995 - December 1998
November 1992 - December 1998
July 2008 - present
Education
June 1989 - May 1993
Publications
Publications (49)
Background:
Cognitively impaired hospital patients often experience agitation and aggression due to pain. Agitation complicates care, increasing the risk of adverse outcomes and patient-to-nurse violence. Literature suggests nurses may rely on antipsychotics while missing other more appropriately targeted treatments. However, nurses’ management of...
Most residential aged care facilities support residents to participate in activities and the importance of activities that are suited to individual preferences and abilities is widely acknowledged. Participating in activities, including those considered to be ‘meaningful’ has the potential to improve residents’ quality of life. However, what makes...
Background
cognitively impaired hospital patients often experience agitation and aggression due to pain. Agitation complicates care, increasing the risk of adverse outcomes and patient-to-nurse violence. Managing agitation is challenging for nurses. Literature suggests they may rely on antipsychotics while missing other more appropriately targeted...
Purpose
This study aims to describe the development and approach of a theory-informed social marketing intervention that aimed to promote respite for carers of people with dementia. Despite a high need for respite, carers of people with dementia are often low users of available respite services. The reasons for this are complex, including knowledge...
Objectives
Spouses are at risk of poor psychosocial outcomes following placement of their partner with dementia into long-term care. The Residential Care Transition Module (RCTM) is a psychosocial intervention developed in the United States to support carers post-placement. This study aimed to test the RCTM delivered by telephone to Australian spou...
Background and objectives
Many spousal caregivers experience stress, depression, loneliness, guilt and grief when placing a partner with dementia into long-term care. However, there is little research about their transitional support experiences, needs and preferences. This study aimed to gain a deeper understanding of these issues from spousal car...
Background
Pain-related agitation in hospital patients with dementia presents a diagnostic challenge as patients often cannot explain their agitation. Generally, a deductive process is required of staff, culminating in an analgesic trial. However, evidence suggests the deductions of hospital nurses may be flawed because they may not associate agita...
Objective
Research involving people with dementia is vital to appropriately inform policy and practice decisions affecting this population. As dementia-care researchers, we frequently advocate to Human Research Ethics Committees for the right of people with dementia to choose whether to participate in research. This brief report provides some consi...
‘Rethink Respite’ was a prospective, naturalistic cohort study conducted in the Illawarra‐Shoalhaven (NSW, Australia) to improve knowledge, attitudes and uptake of respite strategies in carers of people with dementia. A convenience sample of n = 70 carers were recruited in 2014–15 to establish a baseline for knowledge, attitudes and use of respite...
Aims and objectives:
Five of the eight focus areas of Bowen's Feasibility Framework were utilised to assess the feasibility of implementing the Safe Walking Program (SWP) with people with severe dementia who wander in long-term care (LTC).
Background:
Dementia-related wandering in LTC is associated with adverse outcomes related to intensity (mal...
Objective
The aim was to explore the natural disaster preparedness strategies of Australian residential aged care facilities (RACFs), focussing on aspects relevant to people with dementia.
Methods
An online survey was sent to 2617 RACF managers, with 416 responding. Questions included the following: (a) demographics; (b) presence and detail level...
Background
Research highlights the need for carers of people with dementia to acquire relevant and timely information to assist them to access appropriate respite services. Unfortunately, negative experiences of information-seeking can create additional stress for carers and contribute to delays in up-take, or not using respite services at all.
Me...
Attendance at day respite centers (DRCs) provides stimulation and socialization for people with dementia and respite time for family carers. Yet little is known about the quality of the dementia-specific care provided in DRCs. We conducted two-day on-site observational studies of seven Australian DRCs in 2017. Methods included: (A) assessing dement...
Long term care (LTC) residents with dementia who engage in risky wandering experience adverse outcomes including weight loss, fatigue, injury from falls, resident to resident violence, becoming lost and death. Limited robust evidence currently informs best practice for managing risky wandering in LTC using non-pharmacological interventions. Two dif...
Objective:
To identify, appraise and synthesize existing evidence regarding the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions on the psychological health and emotional well-being of family carers of people with dementia who have moved into residential care.
Introduction:
Many carers experience stress, guilt, grief and depression following placemen...
Many health and social care research studies report difficulties recruiting sufficient numbers of participants, adding to time and money expenditures and potentially jeopardizing the generalizability of findings. The current article reports the effectiveness and resource requirements of recruitment strategies used in nine dementia-related studies c...
Background
In studies involving people with dementia, researchers have historically defaulted to seeking consent from a proxy, the assumption being that people with dementia are unable to provide their own informed consent. This choice denies people with dementia a voice in the consent process, thus disregarding their autonomy and agency. Recently,...
Background
Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are a common problem in long-term care facilities (LTC). Clinical guidelines dictate that first-line treatments for BPSD are psychosocial and behavioral interventions; if these are unsuccessful, psychotropic medications may be trialed at low doses and their effects can be monitored...
An understudied care setting for people with dementia is day respite. Government-funded day respite centres (DRC) provide opportunities for socialisation and activities to people with dementia and respite to family carers. This presentation fills a knowledge gap about what constitutes a “good day out” from three perspectives: DRC managers, DRC staf...
Many older people enjoy travelling for leisure, air travel included. To increase the self-determination and independence of people living with dementia we need to reduce the barriers to participation in all areas of life, including leisure. We used an exploratory, mixed method research design to learn about the experiences of people with dementia w...
The presence and severity of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) influence the everyday comfort of nursing home residents. Within a larger, nationally representative study of Australian nursing homes (n=53) conducted by the Aus-QoL group, this presentation examines the relationship between BPSD and quality of life (QoL). Depres...
Review question/objective:
The objective of this review is to identify, appraise and synthesize existing evidence regarding the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions on the psychological health and emotional wellbeing of family carers of people with dementia who have moved into residential care.More specifically, the objectives are to determ...
Review question/objective:
The objective of this systematic review is to identify, critically appraise and synthesize the best available literature regarding experiences and perceptions of family-staff relationships in the care of people with dementia living in residential aged care facilities.More specifically, the objectives are to identify fami...
Background:
The ability to participate in valued activities, whether for work, leisure or family, is an important aspect of personal identity. In dementia, progressive memory loss means that abilities developed over a lifetime begin to be lost as well, contributing to the loss of self and identity. Some studies have reported that activities or int...
Abstract: Behaviours and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are a common problem in residential aged care facilities (RACFs). Clinical guidelines dictate that first-line treatments for BPSD are psychosocial interventions, if these are unsuccessful psychotropic medications may then be trialled at low doses and their effects monitored. Data fr...
Objectives: Wandering-related boundary transgression (BT) in long term care (LTC) frequently manifests as intrusion into another resident's bedroom and is associated with adverse outcomes (loss of privacy, resident-to-resident altercations, and becoming lost). This observational study is the first to empirically describe the characteristics of wand...
Review question/objective:
The objective of this review is to identify and appraise existing evidence regarding the effectiveness of interventions designed to enhance staff-family relationships for people with dementia living in residential aged care facilities.More specifically, the objectives are to identify the effectiveness of constructive com...
Background: Malnutrition and unintentional weight loss are major clinical issues in people with dementia living in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) and are associated with serious adverse outcomes. However, evidence regarding effective interventions is limited and strategies to improve the nutritional status of this population are required....
Sampling design is critical to the quality of quantitative research, yet it does not always receive appropriate attention in nursing research. The current article details how balancing probability techniques with practical considerations produced a representative sample of Australian nursing homes (NHs). Budgetary, logistical, and statistical const...
This publication may be downloaded from JBI here: http://joannabriggslibrary.org/index.php/jbisrir/article/view/2058/2454
(Open Access, no subscription required)
Dementia is a chronic illness without cure or effective treatment, which results in declining mental and physical function and assistance from others to manage activities of daily living. Many people with dementia live in long term care facilities, yet research into their quality of life (QoL) was rare until the last decade. Previous studies failed...
As the population ages, the number of patients with dementia in acute care environments is projected to increase rapidly. However, many acute care nurses have undertaken little or no dementia training, potentially leading to reduced quality of care for these patients. This article details the development and delivery of a tailored education program...
Respite care is a cornerstone service for the home management of people with dementia. It is used by carers to mitigate the stress related to the demands of caring by allowing time for them to rest and do things for themselves, thus maintaining the caring relationship at home and perhaps forestalling long-term placement in a residential aged care f...
Positive attitudes of healthcare staff towards people with dementia promote higher quality care, although little is known about important factors that underlie positive attitudes. Key aims of this project were to explore the relationships between staff attitudes towards dementia, self-confidence in caring for people with dementia, experience and de...
The Alzheimer’s Australia 15th National Conference held on 14–17 May 2013 in Hobart (Tasmania, Australia) attracted a wide range of attendees, including people living with dementia, family caregivers, health professionals and researchers. The conference theme, The Tiles of Life Coloring the Future, invoking a vision of a better future for those aff...
To explore the effects of a dementia-specific, aquatic exercise intervention on behavioural and psychological symptoms in people with dementia (BPSD).
Residents from two aged care facilities in Queensland, Australia, received a 12-week intervention consisting of aquatic exercises for strength, agility, flexibility, balance and relaxation. The Psych...
Background
Continued aging of the population is expected to be accompanied by substantial increases in the number of people with dementia and in the number of health care staff required to care for them. Adequate knowledge about dementia among health care staff is important to the quality of care delivered to this vulnerable population. The purpose...
To describe the reported impact of Pandemic (H(1)N(1) ) 2009 on EDs, so as to inform future pandemic policy, planning and response management.
This study comprised an issue and theme analysis of publicly accessible literature, data from jurisdictional health departments, and data obtained from two electronic surveys of ED directors and ED staff. Th...
The aim of the present study was to examine the impact of Pandemic (H(1)N(1)) 2009 Influenza on the Australian emergency nursing and medicine workforce, specifically absenteeism and deployment.
Data were collected using an online survey of 618 members of the three professional emergency medicine or emergency nursing colleges.
Despite significant in...
Objective The aims of this study were to identify the impact of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 Influenza on Australian Emergency Departments (EDs) and their staff, and to inform planning, preparedness, and response management arrangements for future pandemics, as well as managing infectious patients presenting to EDs in everyday practice. Methods This study...
Three hypotheses seek to explain the persistence of residential segregation between blacks and whites in the United States: economic differentials, discrimination in housing and lending markets, and neighborhood preferences. The preferences hypothesis posits that both races wish to live in racially homogeneous neighborhoods. This article examines t...
This study examines the changing profile of the urban United States, with particular reference to the impact of immigration, suburbanization, and growing diversity associated with increased racial and income polarization. "This overview provides a backdrop by focusing on the forces that shape key demographic trends across broad regions and in metro...
One theory explaining worsening social conditions among the US ghetto poor is that an exodus of upwardly mobile families deprived poor neighbourhoods of middle‐class institutions and role models. An analysis of data for one metropolitan area documents that class segregation among blacks is not new and did not increase sharply during the 1970s when...
"The 1980 U.S. Census revealed a marked acceleration in the suburbanization of blacks during the 1970s. This paper provides a preliminary answer to whether that acceleration continued in the 1980s by examining the 1985 American Housing Survey (National and Metropolitan Samples). These data sets permit racial and socioeconomic status comparisons in...