Improving Undergraduate Nursing Students' Attitudes And Knowledge Toward The Elderly: An Intervention Study

Objective:To assess the baccalaureate nursing students'attitudes and knowledge toward the elderly and the willings to take care of the elderly after graduationand; To evaluate the effects of an educational intervention on the knowledge and attitudes of nursing students toward older adults and on increasing the willings to take care of the elderly; To supply references for Geriaric nursing.Methods:Three hundred and nine nursing students were recruited at baseline study and then the intervention subjects 66 junior students and 96 sophomore students, the control group were chosen from the baseline subjects. Interventions, including Ageing Game, friendly vistiting old adults and education, were given to the intervention subjects from September to December in 2010. Chinese version of Kogan's Attitudes toward Old People Scale and Palmore's Facts on Aging Quiz were used to measure attitudes toward and knowledge of older adults before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed by SPSS13.0 software.Results:1. Willings to take care of the elderly at baseline.Only 34 students (11.0%) out of 309 showed the willings to take care of the elderly after graduation.2. Positive attitudes toward but poor knowledge about the elderly at baseline.KAOP was 158.87±17.63; KAOP Negative was 80.07±10.97; KAOP Positive was 78.79±11.70; FAQ1 was 10.97±3.20 (43.9% correct)。KAOP, KAOP Positive, KAOP Negative and FAQ1 were statistically different in different grades (P<0.05).3. Attitudes knowledge toward and willing to care the elderly after intervention KAOP (160.39±18.98), KAOP Negative (80.67±11.43), KAOP Positive (79.73±10.19), and FAQ1 (13.92±2.41) were increased after the intervention (P<0.05).13 subjects (2%) showed the willings to take care of the elderly, compared with 2 subjects at baseline (P<0.05)4. Attitudes and Knowledge increasing different in different subjectsKAOP score increasing was significantly in subjects with different hometowns (city and country) and who were the only child (P<0.05). KAOP Negative scores increasing was not significantly different in subjects with different characteristics (P>0.05). KAOP Positive score increasing was significantly in subjects with different hometowns (country and villege), who was the only child in famliys and whether nursing was the first choice or not. (P<0.05). Knowledge increasing was significantly in subjects without experiences with old adults (P<0.05)5. Attitudes and knowledge increasing compared with the control groupKAOP and KAOP Positive scores were not different compared with the control group(P>0.05). KAOP Negative score was still lower than the control group(t=2.90, P<0.05). Knowledge scores were higher than that of the control group (t=-3.60, P<0.05).Conclusions:1. Willings to take care of the old adults seem to be poor in Nusing students.2. Attitudes toward the elderly are posive but knowledge about ageing is poor. Attitudes and Knowledge are better in second year students.3. Attitudes toward, Knowledge about and willing to take care of the elderly can be improved by intervention.4. Improvement of attitudes and knowledge toward the elderly are more obvious in subjects who came from city and made nursing the first choice and met old adults and is the only child in the family.