Study on Subjectivity of Nursing Students toward Patient with Dementia

The purpose of this study is to identify the subjectivity toward the patient with dementia perceived by nursing students.

To describe the characteristics by type and to classify the patient with dementia, and Q methodology was applied. 18 nursing students of A University were asked to classify 47 statements about patients with dementia. Collected data were analyzed using QUANL PC program.

In the results of this study, the perception of the nursing students toward the patient with dementia was classified to 3 factors. 3 factors were identified and explain 50.94% of whole variables. Factor 1 was 34.94%, factor 2 was 10.48% and factor 3 was 5.52%. As the factor 1 has 34.94% of explanation power, it can be considered the factor explaining the subjectivity of the nursing students’ perception on the patient with dementia the most. Out of 18 subjects, the subjects belonged to factor 1 was 3, factor 2 was 9 and factor 3 was 6 subjects. The subjectivity type toward the patient with dementia was ‘Nurse-oriented’, ‘Family of patent with dementia-oriented’ and ‘Future improvement-oriented.

This study identified the perception of nurses in clinical field toward the patient with dementia and provides the basic data for education.