Effect of an Educational Module on the Community Nursing Students’ Attitude and Intention to Work with Elderly Population

Abstract

Purpose:

This study aimed to determine the effect of an educational module on the attitude  of  community nursing students` toward the elderly population and Intention to work with them

Methodology:

The study was conducted in the College of Nursing, Jeddah, at the King Saud bin Abdul-Aziz University. All the students enrolled in the community health nursing course in Spring semester 2016, Fall semester 2016/2017 were  recruited in the study. A mixed design was used to fulfill the study objectives. Quasi-experimental design was adopted to conduct the study. All students filled the questionnaire before and after exposure to the elderly module. For Qualitative exploratory design, in-depth interview was used in data collection.

The questionnaire consisted of three parts: The first part included the basic sociodemographic data like age, residence, marital status, birth order. The second part included The University of California Los Angeles Geriatrics Attitude (UCLA-GA) scale, the third part included the student experience and willing to work with older people.

Findings:

Nearly two-thirds of the students stated that they intended to work with the elderly after graduation. The mean attitude was higher in the single students who lived outside Jeddah, lived in the extended family. The students who had an elderly relative who lived with their families had more positive attitude toward the elderly. The nursing students who had a positive intention to work with an elderly increased as well as their acceptance of elderly institutionalization after attending the module.

Keywords: Elderly, Attitude, Intention to work, Nursing students.