Acute medical and surgical nurses’ knowledge and attitudes towards ageing and older persons

Abstract

ABSTRACT In view of population aging, more older persons are being admitted to acute hospitals. However, the level of care that older people receive is suboptimal. Nurses’ negative attitudes and inadequate level of knowledge strongly influence the level of care. The study sought to explore medical and surgical nurses’ knowledge and attitudes related to aging and older persons and to identify factors influencing their knowledge and attitudes. An online questionnaire was distributed to 339 nurses (experience ranging from 1–15 years), working in eleven medical and nine surgical wards within a Maltese acute-care hospital. One hundred and sixty-four questionnaires were collected (response rate: 48.4%). The Kogan’s Attitude toward Old People scale and Palmore’s Facts on Aging Quiz were used. The association between these two domains and a number of socio-demographic factors was sought. The participants had moderately poor level of knowledge (mean knowledge score:14.87 ± 2.92) and a moderately positive attitude (mean attitude score: 4.48 ± 0.58) about older adults. A Spearman correlation showed a positive relationship between knowledge and attitudes. The only factor positively influencing both knowledge and attitudes, was whether nurses had additional training in gerontology and geriatrics. Moreover, being a charge nurse, working in a surgical ward or having an older person living in the same household, resulted in better knowledge. The study highlights the importance of providing additional geriatrics and gerontological education for acute nurses to improve their knowledge base about aging and their attitudes toward older adults. This could result in older people receiving improved level of nursing care during hospitalization.