Diane Wilson is a nurse with 35 years’ experience in roles that include rehab, long term care, home health, skilled, personal care, assisted living, education, and management. She has a passion for caring for people living with dementia and is on a mission to educate long term care facilities, and especially dementia units and memory care neighborhood caregivers. She is currently a Senior Clinical Educator for AMI-LTC Rise.
AMI is a worldwide company that provides medical services and training. AMI won the contract from the Department of Health to provide education and training through the LTC Rise program, funded by the CDC and DOH. Diane teaches fall prevention, infection prevention, age sensitivity, and many more educations. RISE currently educates in over 300 LTC communities in Southwestern Pennsylvania and Diane teaches in over 70 of those. With her CADDCT, she hopes to add dementia education outside of her RISE job.
As a Senior Clinical Educator, teaching on a myriad of subjects, Diane wanted to pursue Dementia-specific training that goes beyond the state-mandated 12-hour training.
“I wanted them to feel the importance of their job, the fact that it’s more of a calling and not for everyone. NCCDP offers so many different courses, all specialized, which drew me in. I teach that one size does not fit all, and the NCCDP platform promotes exactly how I feel.”
A study published in 2022 reported that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 223,000 direct care staff left bedside nursing (including Diane) which contributed to nationwide staffing shortages throughout senior living and long-term care communities. Diane notes “It made me think of the staff that were left, or the staff that would come to replace those 223,000 workers. Who is going to train them if all of these veteran employees are gone now? Where will they get their knowledge from?”
“I have worked dementia all my life. It’s always been my passion. Recently, the PA DOH approved a training called “Age Sensitivity” which is half lecture, half hands on. I can’t get enough of it. I have so many examples, stories, suggestions and even tie it to the news with stars and dignitaries who have been diagnosed with some of the more known afflictions. It’s a fascinating subject and I truly believe you can’t be trained enough.”
Diane’s mother was also a dementia nurse. She’s passionate about caring for persons living with dementia and using person centered language and techniques. “I am hoping that I can make an impact on the people who take the CDP course so that they can make the impact at the bedside.”
