1Institute of Older People's Health and Well-being, The University of the West of Scotland
2Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing Florida Atlantic University, USA
3Faculty of Health Care Jesenice Slovenia, Witten/Herdecke University, Germany
4Witten/Herdecke University, Germany
5Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Japan
6Professor and Assistant Head, Department in Charge of Research
*Corresponding author: Angela Kydd, Senior Lecturer Research, Institute of Older Peoples Health and Well Being, The University of the West of Scotland, Hamilton Campus, Lanarkshire, ML3 0JB, Scotland, UK. E-mail: Angela.kydd@uws.ac.uk
Online published on 1 August, 2014.
To describe attitudes towards caring for older people among nurses and student nurses in six participating countries.
Working with older people has historically had a negative profile and with a global rise in the numbers of older people and a global shortage of nurses, it is essential to recruit nurses into this area. This study gathered data from six countries to explore nurses and student nurses attitudes to nursing older people and to gerontological nursing as a career.
A convenience sample of 1064 nursing students and 2585 nurses in six countries answered the Multifactorial Attitudes Questionnaire (MAQ) designed to elicit attitudes towards caring for older people and to the esteem that comes with working in this field. The MAQ consists of seven positive and 13 negative statements and uses a Likert scale. A higher total score indicates a more positive attitude.
Differences in attitudes among the six counties was observed for both nursing students and for nurses (<.001). Nursing students in Scotland and USA had the highest mean scores and Slovenia and Sweden were the countries with the lowest mean score. The highest score for nurses were reported in Scotland and Sweden and lowest in Germany and Japan.
From the findings, it is suggested that formal nursing education to students between 18–29 years of age has high importance for positive attitudes towards working with older people.
Nursing education, Attitudes, MAQ, Student nurses, Nurses
