attitudes of healthcare workers towards older people in a rural population a survey using the kogan scale卫生保健工作者对老年人的态度在农村人口调查使用kogan规模.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Nursing Research and Practice Volume 2011, Article ID 352627, 7 pages doi:10.1155/2011/352627 Research Article Attitudes of Healthcare Workers towards Older People in a Rural Population: A Survey Using the Kogan Scale Mandy Doherty,1 Elizabeth A. Mitchell,2 and Siobhan O’Neill3 1 Carndonagh Community Hospital, Donegal, Ireland 2 School of Nursing, University of Ulster, Londonderry BT487JL, UK 3 Psychology Research Institute, University of Ulster, Northland Road, Londonderry BT487JL, UK Correspondence should be addressed to Elizabeth A. Mitchell, ea.mitchell@ulster.ac.uk Received 9 December 2010; Accepted 22 February 2011 Academic Editor: Leana Ria Uys Copyright © 2011 Mandy Doherty et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. With the global trend towards an increasingly ageing population, it is clear that nurses need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to fulfil significant roles in responding to future health and support needs. This paper reports the results of a survey that aimed to identify and evaluate the attitudes of nurses, healthcare assistants, and nursing students towards older people. The survey was undertaken in a rural county in the Republic of Ireland. It is reassuring that in our study, we found that these healthcare workers hold positive attitudes towards older people. In addition, we found that study to a higher level at university appears to mitigate towards holding more positive attitudes, and this is an important finding in light of the shift towards nursing as an all-graduate profession. 1. Introduction