Knowledge of Aging and Attitudes Toward Older Adults of Nurses Working at a General Hospital in Vietnam

Abstract

Background: Population aging in countries around the world, including in Vietnam, is happening at a rapid pace. The proportion of older adults is increasing along with the increasing demand for health care for older adults. The need for nursing staff with knowledge about aging and the right attitude toward older adults is necessary in preparing to meet the needs of society today and in the future. Purpose: This study aimed to explore the level of knowledge and attitudes toward older adults of nurses working at a general hospital at the provincial level in Quang Tri province, Vietnam as well as to identify the differences in knowledge of aging and attitudes toward older adults by general characteristics of surveyed nurses. Methods: This study used a cross-sectional study investigating the knowledge of aging and the attitudes towards older adults of 240 nurses (219 female, 21 male nurses) using an online self-administered questionnaire that included the Kogan’s Attitudes Toward Old People Scale (KAOP) and Palmore’s Facts of Aging Quiz (FAQ). Older adults were defined as those aged 60 years and above for this study. Results: All of the nurses (100%) had an average level of knowledge of aging (FAQ score from 18 to 35) and the majority of nurses (225, 93.8 %) had neutral attitudes (KAOP score from 102 to 136), 13 (5.4%) of nurses had positive attitudes (KAOP score from 137 to 204) and 2 (18.8%) had negative attitudes towards older adults (KAOP score from 34 to 101). 52% respondent had right perception of frailty which was found statistically significant with respondents’ FAQ scores (p< .05) and negative attitudes toward older adults (KAOP-) (p< .05). Total KAOP scores were not significantly different regardless of age, gender, living with older adults, working departments, attending a geriatric course, attending in seminars on geriatrics. There was significant positive relationship between knowledge of aging and attitudes toward older adults. Conclusions: Majority of nurses in Quang Tri General Hospital have an average level of knowledge of aging and a neutral attitude towards the older adults. It indicates that there is a need for improvement in knowledge of aging as well as attitudes towards older adults. Continuing training programs as well as profession development courses for nurses in geriatric care therefore should be designed and developed to raise better knowledge of aging and more positive attitudes toward older adults among nurses for providing better quality of older adult care.