Senior Nursing Students' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Perceived Competency about Older Adults

• Main Author: Brabham, Deborah Denise
• Format: Others
• Published: NSUWorks 2018
• Subjects: Social sciences; Health and environmental sciences; Education; Attitudes; Knowledge; Nursing programs; Nursing students; Older adults; Perceived competency; Nursing
• Online Access: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hpd_con_stuetd/48; https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1051&context=hpd_con_stuetd

Background: Nurses entering the workforce may have limited education in gerontological nursing. Therefore, many nurses are unprepared to provide quality care to older adults. An unprepared nursing workforce could negatively influence older adults’ health outcomes and care experience. Purpose: To determine differences in senior nursing students’ knowledge, attitudes, and perceived competency about older adults based on enrollment in a bachelor of science in nursing degree (BSN), associate’s degree nursing (ADN), and practical nursing (PN) program that offers geriatric content in curricula. Theoretical Framework: Bandura’s social cognitive theory, triadic reciprocal determinism model provided the theoretical framework. Methods: A non-experimental, descriptive survey design with a convenience sample of students enrolled in a BSN, ADN and PN program. A total of 178 students participated in this dissertation study. Palmore Facts on Aging Quiz 2, Kogan’s Attitudes Toward Old People Scale, and the Hartford Geriatric Nurse Competency tool was used to collect data. Results: Students enrolled in BSN, ADN, and PN programs demonstrated limited knowledge about facts on aging. Students’ attitudes toward older adults were positive, and a correlation was found between knowledge and attitudes. Students perceived competency about older adults were high, but purely subjective. Students’ preference to work with older adults post graduation in the PN group were higher compared with students in both the BSN and ADN group. Conclusions: This study underscore the need to systematically design an evidence-based curriculum inclusive of geriatric content across (BSN, ADN, and PN) programs to prepare the future nursing workforce to care for older adults.