Background: People with dementia occupy up to one quarter of acute hospital beds. However, the quality of care delivered to this patient group is of national concern. Staff working in acute hospitals report lack of knowledge, skills and confidence in caring for people with dementia. There is limited evidence about the most effective approaches to supporting acute hospital staff to deliver more person-centred care.Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a specialist training programme for acute hospital staff regarding improving attitudes, satisfaction and feelings of caring efficacy, in provision of care to people with dementia.Design: A repeated measures design, with measures completed immediately prior to commencing training (T1), after completion of Foundation level training (T2: 4-6 weeks post-baseline), and following Intermediate level training (T3: 3-4 months postbaseline). Setting: One NHS Trust in the North of England, UK.Participants: 40 acute hospital staff working in clinical roles, the majority of whom (90%) were nurses.Methods: All participants received the 3.5 day Person-centred Care Training for Acute Hospitals (PCTAH) programme, comprised of two levels, Foundation (1/2 day) and Intermediate (3 days), delivered over a 3-4 month period. Staff demographics and previous exposure to dementia training was collected via a questionnaire. Staff attitudes were measured using the Approaches to Dementia Questionnaire (ADQ), satisfaction in caring for people with dementia was captured using the Staff Experiences of Working with Demented Residents questionnaire (SEWDR) and perceived caring efficacy was measured using the Caring Efficacy Scale (CES). Results:The training programme was effective in producing a significant positive change on all three outcome measures following intermediate training compared to baseline. A significant positive effect was found on the ADS between baseline and after completion of Foundation level training, but not for either of the other measures. Conclusions:Training acute hospital staff in Intermediate level person-centred dementia care is effective in producing significant improvements in attitudes towards and satisfaction in caring for people with dementia and feelings of caring efficacy. Foundation level training is effective in changing attitudes but does not seem to be sufficient to bring about change in satisfaction or caring efficacy.2 Keywords: acute hospitals; dementia; education; general hospitals; person-centred care; staff training. Contribution of the paper:What is already known about this topic? Care for people with dementia is has often been found to be of poor quality in acute general hospitals and deficiencies in staff knowledge, skills and confidence to deliver dementia care is a contributory factor.  Person-centred dementia care can improve quality of life for people with dementia in specialist settings but there remains limited knowledge and understanding about its application in acute hospitals.  There is limited research about the...