A Collaborative Approach for Online Dementia Care Training

Abstract

There are obvious benefits to working in collaboration. However, real collaboration takes time; time to engage in meetings, complete accountability processes, and resolve problems. The delicate balance between democracy and efficiency can be compromised when you have to choose between equal participation and looming deadlines (Stoecker, 2003). Weaver and Cousins (2004) described this dilemma as assessing manageability or having to make a choice between achieving complete diversity on the researcher-community team and the unwieldiness of working with a large committee. Compromise is often necessary. This article describes our experiences using a collaborative approach involving university-based researchers and community professionals—in this case, long-term care (LTC) managers, administrators, and hospital-based educators and researchers—to create an online dementia care training program.