Nursing students' experiences of, and socialisation in, dementia care in the acute hospital setting.

Optimal dementia care knowledge and skills can contribute to enhanced patient outcomes and positive attitudes towards older people's care. To reduce deficits in dementia care education, nurses need regular continuing professional development in dementia care, higher education institutions need to commit to developing dementia care in their curricula, and students need to be socialised in dementia care earlier during undergraduate nurse education.