Towards good dementia care: Awareness and uptake of an online Dementia Pathways tool for rural and regional primary health practitioners

ObjectiveTo explore the awareness and usage of an online dementia pathways tool (including decision tree and region-specific dementia services) for primary health practitioners (GPs and nurses) in regional Victoria. DesignQuantitative pilot study using surveys and Google Analytics. SettingA large regional area (48 000 square kilometres, population 220 000) in Victoria. ParticipantsTwo hundred and sixty-three GPs and 160 practice nurses were invited to participate, with 42 respondents (GPs, n = 21; practice nurses, n = 21). Main outcome measuresPrimary care practitioners' awareness and usage of the dementia pathways tool. ResultsSurvey respondents that had used the tool (n = 14) reported accessing information about diagnosis, management and referral. Practitioners reported improvements in knowledge, skills and confidence about core dementia topics. There were 9683 page views between August 2013 and February 2015 (monthly average: 509 page views). The average time spent on page was 2.03 min, with many visitors (68%) spending more than 4 min at the site. This research demonstrates that the tool has been well received by practitioners and has been consistently used since its launch. Health practitioners' valued the content and the availability of local resources. ConclusionPrimary health practitioners reported that the dementia pathways tool provided access to region-specific referral and management resources for all stages of dementia. Such tools have broad transferability in other health areas with further research needed to determine their contribution to learning in the practice setting and over time.