Victorian aged care advisor goes back to uni

The Quality Advisor with Benetas has won a scholarship from the RCNA to find out more about dementia services.

A Victorian aged care advisor has been awarded a scholarship from the Royal College of Nursing Australia (RCNA) to complete a Masters in Gerontology.

Benetas Quality Advisor, Chris Smith will use the funding to focus on research about dementia.

Ms Smith is convinced that we are yet to reach a full understanding of the challenges that population ageing and dementia will pose.

“I would like to undertake research into current practices and services, with a view to reassessing current person-centered care approaches,” she said.

“This type of work is particularly important given the projected dementia epidemic for Australia.”

In her role at Benetas, Ms Smith is responsible for developing and reviewing the organisation’s policies and procedures.

She has experience in aged care nursing, human services administration and business.

Ms Smith said other people in aged care should take the opportunity to study and further explore their practice.

“Learning is life long,” she said. “We need to continually question and strive to improve our understandings and practice – to network, learn and share our knowledge. No one is too old to learn.”

The CEO of Benetas, Sandra Hills said she was thrilled that Ms Smith was undertaking further study around dementia.

“Building a positive and engaging workforce is fundamental to growing our organisation and ensuring quality of care is first-class,” she said.

Tags: benetas, dementia, education-and-training, masters,

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