Views of Senior Nursing Students on the Problems of the Elderly During the Covid-19 Process and Attitudes Against Ageism

Abstract

Background: Older adults, the prevalence of chronic diseases increase, depending on the physiological and psychological changes that occur with aging processes of maintenance issues in pandemic seems to be more important. Objectives: This study aims to examine the attitudes of senior nursing students regarding ageism as well as their views of the problems the elderly faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The present study is a mixed study with quantitative and qualitative dimensions and it was conducted in the nursing department of a health sciences faculty in Turkey. The quantitative part of the study consisted of 75 senior students and the qualitative part was composed of 13 students. Quantitative data were collected using the Introductory Information Form and the Ageism Attitude Scale and qualitative data using a semi-structured interview form. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, one-way analysis Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis tests and content analysis were used. Results: The mean age of the students was 22.16 ± 0.91, 76% were female, 85.3% lived in the same house with an older adults in the pandemic process, 96% provided nursing care to the older adults during their professional education, and 18.7% did help the older adults during the pandemic. It was found that the students' attitudes toward the elderly were positive and their views of the elderly during the pandemic were distributed among the main themes of Vulnerable, Emotional Shake, Culture, and Iceberg. Conclusion: In this study, it was determined that senior nursing students have a positive attitude towards elderly people and can handle the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health of elderly individuals from a holistic perspective. It is recommended to increase the opportunity of students to care for the elderly in the nursing education process and to include the concept of the elderly more in the nursing curriculum.