Attitudes of nursing students toward older adults

Older adults represent the largest and fastest growing segment of the population and are among those who access the health care system to the greatest extent. These trends call for health care professionals, such as nurses, to be well prepared to care for the specialized and often complex needs of the older adult cohort. This preparation often begins in basic nursing educational programs when nursing students are introduced formally to the care of older adults. However, nursing students do not enter their professional programs unaffected by their socio-cultural context and especially societal attitudes toward aging and the older adult. This book provides a synthesis and critique of this research to identify what is known, to uncover gaps in knowledge, to make recommendations for practice, and to consider directions for future research.