CHANGING ATTITUDES OF CERTIFIED NURSE AIDES IN GERIATRIC SETTINGS THROUGH AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM.
Contributors: St. Louis University.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 175
Subjects: Education, Adult and Continuing.
Description: This exploratory descriptive study was designed to evaluate the attitudes of Certified Nurse Aides (CNAs) toward their patients in selected geriatric settings, before and after a gerontological educational program based on role playing, and further, to classify the leadership styles of the Nursing Home Administrators (NHAs) and the Directors of Nursing (DONs) in these settings as work-centered or people-centered to determine how those leadership styles affect the attitudes of their CNAs.

A paired t test statistic, at the 0.05 level of significance, was used to determine the differences between the mean scores on the pre-test and two post-tests and also to compare the differences between the three tests and the leadership styles.

A descriptive analysis report was presented on all demographic data sheets and on the mathematical mean scores from the Old People Scale Questionnaire (OPSQ) and the Supervisor Behavior Description Questionnaire (SBDQ).

The findings in this study supported hypotheses one and two, in that a gerontological educational program based on role-playing improved attitudes toward the aged as demonstrated by the CNAs, and that the CNAs who worked in the people-centered setting did have a more favorable attitude toward the aged initially than those who worked in the work-centered management setting.

The findings in this study, however, did not meet the expectation of hypothesis three, that CNAs in the people-centered management would demonstrate a greater improvement in attitude as a result of the educational program than those in the work-centered management setting.

The major conclusion of this study was that all CNA subjects developed more favorable attitudes toward the aged, with the most statistically significant attitude change occurring in the CNAs who worked in a work-centered management setting. This is clearly an area where further research is needed.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-07, Section: A, page: 1622.

Thesis (PH.D.)--SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY, 1986.

School code: 0193.