Teachers and student nurses’ attitudes towards caring for older adults in Arak, 2012

Abstract

Background and aim: Nurses are an important part of the care team that in the care of the elderly plays a major role that their attitudes towards working with older people have an impact on the quality of care. This study was aimed to determine the attitude of teachers and nursing students towards the nursing care of the elderly. Methods: In this descriptive analytical study, all of 116 nursing students of third and fourth year and 22 clinical instructors in Arak University of Medical Sciences participated in this study in 2012. Samples were selected with census method. Data collection instrument was an investigator- made questionnaire that its validity and reliability was established. Scores of attitudes were arranged to three levels of weak, average and good after recoded in terms of accepted scores. Results: In terms of attitudes toward care of older people, findings showed that teachers (3.69±0.42) have more positive attitude toward caring for the elderly compared to students with an average of 3.45±0.32. This difference was significant (P=0.01). The majority of nursing students (83.6%) and teachers (72.7%) had moderate attitude towards the care of elderly patients. Conclusion: Although obvious weakness of this approach was less visible teachers can be a suitable model by knowledge and a change in their attitude for their students and try for induction understanding of health value for all members of society, and create better living conditions for them.

Keywords

• attitude
• elderly patients
• nursing teachers
• nursing students