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Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Care of the Elderly Patients Among Nurses in General Hospital, Ondo State, Nigeria

Adigun Mary Opeyemi, Edward Mary Idowu, Sanusi, Adeola Taiwo, Omotosho, Adeyinka Blessing

Abstract


The care of the elderly is multidimensional and these include physical, emotional, spiritual and social care. Therefore, this study aimed at accessing the knowledge, attitude and practice of care of the elderly patients among nurses in General Hospital, Idanre. The study employed a cross-sectional study design, using questionnaires to obtain data from 64 nurses in General Hospital, Idanre. Data were cleaned, coded and analyzed using SPSS 20.0. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages and chart were used to summarize and present data. Furthermore, associations between variables were tested using ANOVA at p value 0.05 level of significance. The researcher found out that there was a significant relationship between knowledge of nurses and the care of elderly patients (P=0.00, P<0.05). There was also a significant relationship between attitude and practice of nurses and the care of elderly patients (P=0.01, P<0.05). The study revealed a good (87%) knowledge of elderly patients, average (54.7%) good attitude towards the care of elderly patients and good practices on the care of elderly patients among the nurses. It was found that negative bias towards elderly patients, unfavorable working atmosphere, improper management policies, health care policy of Nigeria, care of elderly patients is stressful, unattractive area of nursing practice and professional disrespect as factors influencing nurses attitude of care towards the elderly patients. It was concluded that the higher good knowledge score in this study was due to the fact that the respondents were professional nurses.

 


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