Development and Evaluation of a Clinical Manual on Errorless Learning in People with Dementia

Various studies have shown the efficacy of errorless learning (EL) in teaching patients with dementia a wide variety of skills and everyday tasks, with some studies showing beneficial effects and others reporting limited or no advantage. However, EL procedures vary greatly and, to date, no clinical guidelines or manuals are available. Here, we present a nationwide survey exploring the interest in, and feasibility of, EL in dementia care in The Netherlands. Based on the survey results and available evidence in the literature, we subsequently drafted an EL manual and had this concept manual evaluated in a Delphi round using the AGREE instrument. Forty-five health professionals associated with 22 dementia care facilities in The Netherlands, including those survey respondents who had piloted an EL intervention in accordance with the concept manual and an eight-strong expert panel representing various disciplines, deemed EL to be meaningful and feasible for use in dementia care and their residential facilities. Although our manual was favourably received, future studies are required to examine how EL can best be implemented in clinical practice and to determine the optimal outcome measures and quality indicators to reliably evaluate intervention outcomes and to consider the cost-effectiveness of the approach.