Helping care homes recruit the right staff for dementia care

Lead Investigator: Dr Kirsty Haunch

Institution: University of Leeds

Grant Type: Career Development Grant

Start date: June 2024

Duration: 24 months

Amount: £74,583.38

Project summary:

The care home sector is facing a great workforce crisis, but increasing the number of staff will not solve the problem, as the right people need to be recruited to make sure people living with dementia receive the best care possible. Dr Kirsty Haunch will develop situational judgment tests specifically for the dementia sector to attract, select, and retain the right workforce in care homes.

Project background:

The care home sector is experiencing a workforce crisis, with shortage of staff and applicants for dementia care roles. There is a challenge to meet both present and future care demands. However, simply increasing the number of staff is not the answer. Care homes need to attract the right individuals, capable of addressing the physical, social, and emotional needs of people with dementia living in care homes. Care for people living with dementia requires individuals who are kind, compassionate, and able to handle demanding situations, often referred to as possessing personal skills or good bedside manner. Despite being vital for the care setting, locating such individuals is challenging. 

Situational judgment tests can help with the recruitment process as they provide realistic picture of the role and can identify the right people for dementia care work.  

What does this project involve?

Dr Kirsty Haunch will   develop a situational judgment test specifically for the dementia care sector. Dr Haunch will work with dementia care workers to understand scenarios to show the real-life problems to which prospective workers would need to apply their values and personal skills.

Residents living with dementia, their relatives and dementia care workers will act as subject matter experts, who will help Dr Haunch to create and prioritise ideal responses for real-life scenarios.

The situational judgment tests will be piloted amongst job seekers and young people, and human resource leads will be consulted whether these tests are useful for advertising, recruitment and job induction processes.

How will this project help people with dementia?

Currently, the dementia care sector lacks tools to help care homes attract and hire suitable staff. Developing dementia care-specific situational judgment tests could be used at job fairs, promoted online, job centres, colleges, and throughout hiring processes, to attract and hire staff members who show kindness, and compassion, enabling a good quality of care for people with dementia living in care homes. 

Promoting these tools to wider public could also reduce misconceptions about dementia care, improve its public image, and attract care staff from various sectors to dementia care.