Association of nurses' level of knowledge and attitudes to ageism toward older adults: Cross‐sectional study

Abstract

This study aims to examine how the sociodemographic and professional characteristics of nurses in Jordan correlate with their levels of knowledge, attitudes, and ageism toward older adults. Ageism has not been studied in Jordan as it pertains to nurses, so a descriptive, correlational, cross‐sectional design, with a convenience sample of 317 Jordanian nurses, using the Fact on Aging Quiz 1, Fraboni Scale of Ageism, and Relating to Older People Evaluation was conducted in January to February 2019. Significant ageism was found, and differences in knowledge, attitudes, and negative ageism vary among nurses by sociodemographic/professional characteristics. Knowledge and attitudes toward older adults significantly correlate with negative ageism which is associated with poor health outcomes for older adults. Our findings reveal that even in a country with high religious observance and close family ties, ageism exists in healthcare settings because of nurses' poor knowledge and attitudes toward older adults. These findings have implications for nursing education, clinical practice, and health policy. Changes across these sectors based on the findings may contribute to reducing ageist practices and improving older adult health outcomes.

Ageism and the Factors Affecting Ageism among Korean Nursing Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…The SPSS IBM Statistics Program 22.0 was used to analyze the data, and the statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. The sociodemographic and geriatric-related characteristics of the participants were analyzed as descriptive statistics of numbers, percentages, means, and standard deviations (SD).…”

“…It has been reported that about 73% of adults over 65 years old who have multiple chronic diseases have an average of 2.7 chronic diseases [20], meaning that older adults are often in contact with healthcare providers. Nurses are the healthcare professionals who have the most contact with older adults in clinical settings, and older adults often require longterm care and healthcare services; however, negative prejudices against older adults have been found to be more severe than positive biases [21,22]. The younger generation, who has not had much contact with older adults, may lack an understanding of older adults, and this biased view of older adults in a healthcare environment can have a negative impact on quality of nursing care [19,23].…”

Testing the Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Relieving Nurses’ Ageism Toward Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…In the Middle East, 78% of Jordanian nurses reported at least one ageist opinion or act towards older adults (Rababa et al 2020).…”

“…According to a recent study, 72% of hospitalized older adults in the US and 68% in Canada have been victims of ageist acts by nurses during their hospitalization (Ben-Harush et al 2017 ). In the Middle East, 78% of Jordanian nurses reported at least one ageist opinion or act towards older adults (Rababa et al 2020 ).…”

“…The negative stereotypes about older adults held by some nurses may lead them to believe that older adults are frail, weak, dependent, depressed, sick, cognitively dis-intact, and non-productive or lazy. Also, older adults, particularly due to their atypical presentation of illness, are sometimes viewed by nurses as being very challenging patients to care for, deal with, or understand (Rababa et al 2020 ). Therefore, due to their frequent exposure to frail older adults, nurses are more likely than other groups of healthcare providers to hold ageist stereotypes (Kessler et al 2014 ).…”