ATTITUDES OF BEGINNING BACCALAUREATE NURSING STUDENTS TOWARD THE ELDERLY AS RELATED TO FIRST CLINICAL PRACTICE SITE.
Contributors: University of Houston.
Published: 1992
Number of pages: 109
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Education.
Description: The study of attitudes held by baccalaureate nursing students toward the elderly continues to be a major focus of concern for nursing educators and for nursing research in gerontology. There is no doubt that the elderly population is growing in America. The growth of this segment of the population increases the need for adequate health care for the elderly. This need is a primary concern to health care providers.

Since the student nurse of today is the health care provider of tomorrow, the attitudes of these baccalaureate students toward the elderly patient is a vital concern. It was the purpose of this study to compare the attitudes of baccalaureate nursing students toward the elderly patient who had their first clinical experience in a nursing home with the attitudes of baccalaureate nursing students who had their first clinical experience in a hospital.

The Kogan's Attitude Toward Old People Scale was used to elicit data. It is a Likert-like scale and consists of 17 matched pairs of positive and negative statements regarding old people.

The data were tested for significance by the use of the Spearman Correlation Coefficients, the Kolmorkov-Smirnov 2 Sample Test, the Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed Ranks Test and a t-test. A Multiple Regression Backward Elimination Analysis and a Pearson Correlation Matrix were also utilized for testing.

Overall, the students attitudes became more positive. There was a positive correlation between the age of the student and their willingness to work with the elderly patient. Classroom instruction regarding the elderly and the attitude of the nursing instructor were also significant variables. Students who had prior nursing home experience were more willing to work with the elderly after graduation.

Prior to the clinical experience, 66% (N = 102) of the nursing students stated they would like to work with the elderly after graduation. After the completion of the clinical experience only 36% (N = 56) stated they would like to work with the elderly after graduation. This willingness of the nursing students to work with the elderly could have grave consequences regarding the nursing care the elderly will receive in the future.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-07, Section: B, page: 3403.

Thesis (ED.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON, 1992.

School code: 0087.