Difficulties experienced by nurses in older patient care and their attitudes toward the older patients

SummaryBackground is little known about nursesʹ attitudes toward older people in Turkish society, particularly within centers providing care to older patients. ive esearch was conducted to determine nursesʹ attitudes toward older patient care and the difficulties they experience. riptive research design was used. gs search population comprised 282 nurses working in the clinics of public hospitals in central Erzurum that mostly accommodate older patients. s ipants completed questionnaires regarding descriptive characteristics, the type of difficulties they experienced in older patient care, and the Turkish version of Koganʹs Attitudes Toward Old People Scale. Data were evaluated by using percentage, Kruskal–Wallis variance analysis, t test and Mann–Whitney U test. s udy revealed that nurses experienced difficulties due to the inadequacy of physical conditions and technical equipment in hospitals; administrative problems; communication problems; and insufficient knowledge, skills and experience in older patient care. The nursesʹ overall attitude toward the older people was found to be positive (98.83 ± 11.19). sions fficulties experienced by nurses in this sample resulted from the lack of technically equipped hospitals or clinics for older patients and the inadequacy of nursesʹ gerontology education. Despite these factors, the nursesʹ attitude toward older people was positive.