Knowledge and attitude of nursing technical school graduates toward biopsychosocial needs of elderly

Abstract

Background Nursing technical school graduates are increasingly in demand for improving and providing life services among the elderly. Having substantial knowledge and positive attitude toward the elderly will be a key step toward better giving nursing care. Aim The aim of the study was to assess knowledge and attitude of technical nursing school graduates toward biopsychosocial needs of the elderly. Patients and methods A descriptive research design was used. Two tools were used (demographic self-administered questionnaire and attitude toward elderly scale) and completed by 200 technical school graduate nurses from Cairo University Hospital and El Qasr El Ainy New Educational Hospital using a convenient sampling technique. Results Overall, 48% of study participants had an average level of total knowledge score. In addition, 40.0% had neutral level of total attitude score. A highly statistically significant positive relation was found between the study participants’ total level of knowledge and their total level of attitude (P=0.000 and χ2=31.648). In addition, statistically significant positive relations were found between both total knowledge score and total attitude score and the study participants’ age, previous experience, having elderly person within family, and prefer working in geriatric services. Conclusion Almost half of the study participants had average level of total knowledge, and more than third of them had neutral attitude toward the needs of the elderly. Recommendations A specific geriatric training program is needed to give a chance to graduate nurses to improve their knowledge and enhance their attitude toward elderly.