A cross-sectional study: exploring knowledge and attitude of medical and nursing students to Care for Elders in the future

Knowledge and Attitude Towards the Elderly Among Doctors and Medical Students: A Questionnaire-Based Study

INTRODUCTION

 There is a continuous rise in the total number and percentage of elders globally, and as such, they are expected to utilize healthcare services more often. Therefore, this study aimed to determine doctors' and students' current knowledge and attitudes toward elders and compare those findings with other studies worldwide. The specific objectives of this study were to determine and compare the differences in attitudes between medical students and doctors regarding geriatrics. This comparison will focus on the following four key domains: social values, resource distribution, compassion, and medical care. Another objective was to assess the knowledge of medical students and doctors regarding geriatric topics. This assessment will help determine the necessity for interventions such as educational programs and workshops on geriatrics.

METHODS

This cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted by disseminating a Google Forms survey to medical students and doctors. The survey included the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Geriatrics Attitudes Scale and the UCLA Geriatrics Knowledge Test. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 29.0.2.0 (Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.).

RESULTS

 A total number of 126 medical students and 72 doctors filled out the survey. Both medical students and doctors demonstrated moderate scores on the attitudes scale, with overall average scores of 2.92 out of 5 and 2.93 out of 5, respectively. As for knowledge, medical students achieved an average score of 41%, while doctors attained an average score of 43%.

CONCLUSION

 This study provides significant insights regarding the knowledge and attitudes of students and doctors and attitudes towards geriatrics. The moderate attitudes score and poor knowledge score across both groups indicate the need for medical educators in Oman to further emphasize and teach about geriatrics in medical curricula.

Knowledge and Attitudes of Graduating Medical, Pharmacy, and Nursing Students Toward Geriatric Care at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, North West Ethiopia

Background

The education and training of health professions students in geriatric care is critical to their future clinical practice. However, the knowledge and attitude of health science students toward geriatric care are barely studied in Ethiopia.

Objective

This study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitude of graduating medical, pharmacy, and nursing (MPN) students towards geriatric care at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, North West Ethiopia.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 301 graduating MPN students using stratified random sampling from June 30, 2022, to July 30, 2022. The data was collected by using previously validated self-administered structured questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS version 26. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were done. A statistical significance was declared at a p-value < 0.05.

Results

The majority of graduating MPN students had either neutral (70.76%) or positive (16.28%) attitudes towards older people; however, a greater amount (88%) of them had poor knowledge of geriatric care. The knowledge of female students was significantly less favorable than the knowledge of male students (p-value < 0.001). The knowledge and attitudes of pharmacy and nursing students were significantly lower than medical students (p-value < 0.001). The attitude mean rank score of students aged ≤25 years was significantly lower than students aged >25 years (p-value < 0.001).

Conclusion

The majority of graduating MPN students had poor knowledge despite having either a neutral or positive attitude toward geriatric care. Female students had lower knowledge scores than male students. Similarly, pharmacy and nursing students had lower knowledge and attitude scores than medical students, and the attitude score of students aged ≤ 25 years was lower than students aged >25 years. Their respective departments should implement a strategy to improve the knowledge of MNP students.