Dementia & Palliative Education Network
TRANSFORMING DEMENTIA CARE
The goal of the Dementia and Palliative Education Network is to transform nursing education to strengthen care for people living with dementia. DPEN does this in 4 main ways:
1. Educating future clinicians
- Every UW School of Nursing student
- Neurocognitive scholars in nursing
- Excellence in long-term care externship
- Training interprofessional healthcare students
2. Training practicing nurses
- Intensive dementia-focused training for practicing registered nurses
3. Supporting care partners
- Preparing healthcare providers for complex medical management in dementia
- Creating care partner support materials
4. Increasing visibility of dementia-nurses
- Queen Silvia Nursing Award
- Dementia and Palliative Education Network Summit
WHY NURSING AND DEMENTIA?
Dementias are prevalent, debilitating conditions with far-reaching health and social effects. An aging US population means that there will likely be a 50% increase in demand for dementia care by 2025. But large gaps exist in the US healthcare system for people living with dementia.
With almost four million registered nurses (RN’s) – the largest part of the US healthcare workforce – nurses are ideally positioned to lead dementia care transformation.
