A Study on Nursing Students의 Attitudes toward the Elderly

노인에 대한 간호대학생의 태도조사 연구

Presently, there is increasing demand for geriatric nursing care due to increasing proportion of elderly population and extended age. And, of particular importance in deforming the effectiveness of nursing care given to the elderly is the attitude of nursing personnel toward the elderly patient. This study was intendent to investigate the attitudes of baccalaureate nursing students toward the elderly, and to investigate any possible correlation between these attitudes and the following variables: the students' levels (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior), their preferences for var-ious fields of specialization in nursing after graduation, their clinical experiences with geriatric-patients, their personal experience with elderly family members, their educational experience of the elderly's health problems and geriatric nursing, and their experience with relatives and acquaintances over 60 years of age. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compile basic data about the attitudes of nursing students toward the elderly in order to contribute to the improvement of geriatric nursing. The subjects for this study were 259 nursing students: 163 in the College of Nursing at E-womans University., and 96 in the Department of Nursing in K. College. Data was collected from the 11th of Sep., to the 8th of Oct., 1981, using the Tuckman-Lorge Attitude Questionnaire which contained 131 items excepting 6 items. The attitudes toward the elderly was scored by the use of mean and standard deviation. The relations between attitudes toward the elderly and six independent vairables were analysed by T-test. The results which were obtained are as follows : 1. The attitude score of nursing students was M=71.67 S.D= 16.18. Nursing students agreed with 54.8% of the stereotypic statements, and they had stereotypic attitudes toward the elderly relatively. (P<0.01). 2. There was a significant difference between the attitudes of nursing students toward the elderly, and sophomores had a less stereotypic attitudes than juniors and seniors (P<0.01). 3. There was significant difference between the attitudes toward the elderly and the preferences for various fields of specialization in nursing after graduation, and nursing students those who wanted maternity fields had a more stereotypic attitudes than others (P<0.05, p<0.01). 4. There was no significant difference between the attitudes toward the elderly and the clinical experience with the geriatric patients (P>0.05). 5. There was no significant difference between the attitude3 toward the elderly and the personal experience with elderly family members (F>0.05). 6. There was no significant difference between the attitudes toward the elderly and the educational experience of the elderly's health problems and geriatric nursing (P>0.05). 7. There was no significant difference between the attitudes toward the elderly and the experience with relatives and acquaintances over 60 years of age (P>0.05).