Demographic changes as well as issues associated with ageing have created new challenges and obligations for health services around the world, including Greece and Cyprus. Nurses’ involvement in the care of older people is central and nursing adopts modern and more demanding roles to respond to the needs and problems faced by older people. Nursing educational programmes include relevant content and Gerontological Nursing has been developed as a specialisation.
Attitudes towards older people have been studied extensively on how they can affect the inclination of nurses to work with this age group, but also in the provision of quality care. Nursing education is considered as the most influential factor on nurses’ attitudes towards older people.
The aim of this study was to investigate the nursing educational programmes in relation to the care of older people in Greece and Cyprus and to propose ways of improvement if needed.
The study was designed as a cross-sectional with multiple methods of data collection. A protocol was used for the analysis of the nursing educational programmes, while a self-completed questionnaire that included demographic questions, the Kogan’s Old People Scale –consisting of two subscales, one with positive and one with negative statements – was used for the assessment of students’ attitudes and the Palmore’s Facts of Aging Quiz I for the determination of students’ knowledge toward the older people.
The findings from the protocol showed that nursing educational
programmes in Greece (University of Athens and Technological Institute of Athens) and Cyprus vary in terms of content, duration in theoretical and clinical hours as well as in clinical placements. All programmes however, included courses on the care of older people. Kogan’s old people scale showed that university students had more positive attitudes by the end of their study, although negative subscale’s results were not statistically significant. No significant change was made in university students’ knowledge.
TEI students’ changes in attitudes also seem to vary positively but results were not statistically significant. No significant change in TEI students’ knowledge were found. However changes in attitudes on both negative and postive Kogan scales amongst Cypriot students were significant. After the nursing education values in both negative and positive subscales were lower. These findings show that the students at the Cyprus School of Nursing were affected by their studies even if these were not quite what was expected. The knowledge of students improved but not to a significant extent.
The major conclusion drawn from this study is that further research is needed on how educational programmes in Greece and Cyprus affect students in the care of older people by means of a follow-up survey. Nursing and nurses have an important role to play in responding to the needs of older people. In order to have good new nurses for the care of older people it is indispensable to develop curricula that promote positive attitudes to ageing and provide a solid foundation of knowledge on the health and health care needs of older people.