NURSING STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE ELDERLY DISCRIMINATION

Abstract

Background/Aim: With the increase of the elderly population in the world, the need for services to be provided to elderly individuals increases and the need for caregivers in these areas increases. Nurses are the most important health professionals in meeting the care needs of the elderly. For this reason, determining the attitudes of nursing students towards elderly discrimination will contribute significantly to planning and organizing education on elderly care. This study was carried out with the aim of determining the attitudes of the nursing department students towards elderly discrimination. Material and Method: The universe of the research, which is a descriptive type, was composed of 314 students studying in the Nursing Department of a Faculty of Health Sciences of a university in Cyprus in the fall semester of 2016-2017. In the study, sample selection was not made, 287 students who were volunteered to participate in the study, with or without absenteeism, were sampled. Data were collected by Personal Information Form and Elderly Discrimination Attitude Scale. In the evaluation of the data, mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage distributions, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, independent sample t test, Anova and Tukey test were used. Results: The mean scores of the students' age discrimination attitude scale sub-dimensions were 32.55±5.09 to limit the life of the elderly, positive discrimination towards the elderly 31.21±5.58 and negative discrimination towards the elderly 17.36±3.78 and elderly discrimination attitude The total score average of the scale is 81.11±9.41.