URSING STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE ELDERLY ANDAFFECTING FACTORS

Abstract

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to determine nursing students’ attitudes towards the elderly and affecting factors between February 2019 and April 2019. The study population consisted of 563 nursing students studying at the health sciences faculty of a university. In the study, no sampling method was implemented and 454 students who were contacted at the time the data were collected were included in the study. The data were collected by the researchers in classrooms by administrating the Personal Information Form and Kogan's Attitudes toward Older People scale. While the positive attitude score of the participating students towards the elderly was 65.63 ± 10.45, their negative attitude score was 64.01 ± 12.05, and total attitude score was 129.64 ± 16.47. The scores obtained by the students who followed the news about the elderly and wanted to work in institutions where older adults are served after graduation were significantly higher (p <0.001). Of the variables, age, sex and year at school did not affect the participating students' attitudes towards the elderly (p> 0.001).