ObjectiveTo detail how hospital staff with differing personal and professional caregiving experiences approach the care of patients with dementia, in order to make practical recommendations for practice.DesignCross-sectional qualitative interviews.SettingA UK hospital ward providing dementia care.ParticipantsA complete hospital ward staff team, constituting 47 hospital staff from 10 professions.MethodsHospital staff were asked to list their approaches to emotion-focused care in individual, ethnographic freelisting interviews. Cultural consensus analysis was used to detail variations in approaches to dementia care between staff subgroups.Main outcome measuresThe most salient listed descriptions of care emphasised by staff members with personal experience of dementia caregiving when compared with staff members without such experience, and descriptions from staff newer to the profession compared with staff with more years of professional dementia caregiving experience.ResultsSubgroups of hospital staff showed different patterns of responses both in how they noticed the emotional distress of patients with dementia, and in prioritised responses that they deemed to work. Hospital staff with professional experience of dementia caregiving and staff with fewer years of professional experience prioritised mutual communication and getting to know each patient.ConclusionsSubgroups of hospital staff with personal caregiving experiences and fewer years of professional care experience were more likely to describe person-centred care as their routine ways of working with patients with dementia. It is recommended that personal experience and the novice curiosity of hospital staff be considered as valuable resources that exist within multidisciplinary staff teams that could enhance staff training to improve the hospital care for patients with dementia.