Nursing Faculty Experiences of Teaching Dementia Care: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experiences of nursing faculty teaching dementia care to nursing students in Texas. The theory guiding this study was Kolb’s experiential learning theory as it offers a structured framework for examining how experiences lead to learning. This theory also introduced the concept of the Experiential Educator profile, specifically delineating the role of educators in facilitating knowledge acquisition (Kolb, 2014). This study bridged the gap in existing literature regarding the experiences of nursing faculty in teaching dementia care to nursing students and provided a comprehensive look at dementia education in nursing schools. The researcher used interviews, reflective questionnaires, and field notes for data collection. This study included 10 participants who had taught dementia care in Texas within the last five years. The following six themes emerged: (a) need for advocacy and systematic change in dementia education, (b) emotional and personal impact of dementia education, (c) effective teaching strategies are essential for empathy building, (d) need to equip students to manage behavioral and emotional issues in patients with dementia, and (e) cultural perspectives and addressing stigma in dementia care.