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“If You're Frail You've Had It”: A Theory of Planned Behavior Study of Student Nurses' Attitudes Towards Working with Older Patients
Author(s) -
McKinlay Andy,
Cowan Sue
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.0021-9029.2006.00048.x
Subject(s) - theory of planned behavior , psychology , humanism , curriculum , social psychology , health care , population , gerontology , nursing , medicine , control (management) , pedagogy , management , political science , law , economics , economic growth , environmental health
Background: The developed world's population is aging but care of older patients is unpopular in nursing. Objectives: To determine student nurses' attitudes towards working with older patients and analyze underlying factors. Method: 172 UK student nurses were surveyed using the theory of planned behavior. Results: Positive intentions were related to attitudes ( p <0.01) and subjective norms ( p <0.05). Three underlying factors, intolerance ( p <0.01), humanism ( p <0.05), and concern about aging ( p <0.01) differentiated more and less positive participants. Discussion: Results are only partly consistent with previous findings. Future attitudinal research in this area must be more tightly specified to be relevant to health care and should measure actual behavior and employed nurses' views. Nursing curricula should refer to the three relevant factors.