BACKGROUND AND PURPOSEThe tsunami is a popular way of describing the rapid growth of the world's aging adult population. Not only are the sheer numbers of older adults increasing, but individuals are living longer than ever before. Individuals aged 85 years and over are the fastest growing segment of the United States population.1 Health care workers, specifically physical therapists, are needed to prevent mobility disability so common to aging adults. There also is a need for physical therapists to provide intervention for the many acute and chronic conditions prevalent with aging. However, having enough trained physical therapists who want to work with the aging population is a concern. Between 2010 and 2020, physical therapy employment is projected to increase by 39%, largely attributed to growing aging population.2 Of additional concern are studies that show that working with older adults seems to be the least favored career choice among graduating health care students.3'11Health care students' perceptions and attitudes may play a role in a lack of preference to work with aging adults.12 For example, nurses perceive older adults as more vulnerable, sick, hopeless, and dependent.13 Perceptions and attitudes are of concern because negative attitudes about aging affect career choices made by health care students and professionals.3,6,8 If negative perceptions exist, health care students and professionals may not choose to work with older adults, perpetuating the shortage of health care professionals, including physical therapists, to work with aging adults.The views health care professionals have toward the geriatric population are vital to the services they provide and to the quality of health care older adults receive.3,5,14 Negative attitudes toward older adults, termed ageism, are known to decrease the quality of care for aging individuals.15,16 For example, many serious medical conditions in older people may be regarded as a natural part of getting older, and treatment maybe minimized when compared with treatment for the same condition in a younger individual.15 Ageism can promote misdiagnosis, offer less options for age-related hearing17 and vision loss,18 and promote premature dependence on family or the government.15 Physicians may be less aggressive in recommending preventive measures to older adults, a contributing factor in older adults being less likely to receive vaccinations and other preventive recommendations, such as for smoking cessation,15 or to receive substance abuse counseling. Nurses with negative attitudes toward older persons often favor using physical and chemical restraints rather than less restrictive behavioral management strategies.19 Furthermore, inappropriate care for disease management for ag- ing adults is prevalent. Surgeons can be less willing to operate on older patients who may greatly benefit from surgery. Alternatively, surgeons may not consider the consequences of surgery and recovery time while recommending surgery.15 The consequences of polypharmacy in older adults are well-documented.20 People over the age of 75 are one third less likely to receive aggressive radiation or chemotherapy than younger patients.21 Finally, negative attitudes may result in less aggressive goal setting,22 and from the authors experience, under-treatment and suboptimal application of exercise by physical therapists.Health care behaviors and career choices are guided by attitudes,23,24 and one role of education is to shape values and attitudes.25 However, when education has been used to change negative perceptions of aging, the results are equivocal,27 and may even increase negative perceptions.26,27 These equivocal results may come from a focus on decline, losses, and the inevitability of dependency and death, referred to as the decline and loss paradigm or usual aging.28Theories of aging taught in introductory gerontology courses often depict later life only as a series of losses. …