Emotional Care Competency Scale for Dementia: Development and Correlations With Knowledge, Attitudes, and Confidence

This study aims to develop an "Emotional Care Competency Scale for Dementia" targeting long-term care professionals and to explore the relationship between caregivers' emotional care competency and their knowledge, attitudes, and confidence in dementia care. A mixed-methods approach will be employed in two exploratory phases: Phase One: Scale Development Participants: Purposeful sampling will recruit experienced long-term care professionals. Method: Conduct qualitative interviews; analyze the collected data using content analysis to code and categorize information; draft the initial version of the Emotional Care Competency Scale for Dementia based on the results. Phase Two: Scale Validation and Relationship Analysis Objective: Validate the reliability and validity of the scale and examine the relationship between professionals' emotional care competency and their knowledge, attitudes, and confidence in dementia care. Design: Longitudinal descriptive correlational study. Participants: Convenience sampling to recruit participants for two rounds of questionnaire surveys. This study seeks to provide a comprehensive tool for assessing emotional care competencies among dementia care professionals and to understand how these competencies relate to their knowledge, attitudes, and confidence in delivering care.