ABSTRACT

Objective:

This study was performed descriptively to evaluate the attitudes of physicians and nurses toward ageism at the Intensive Care Units.

Methods:

This study was conducted between January 2015 and January 2016 in the Intensive Care Units at the Erzurum Regional Research and Training Hospital, which was one the most common location of elderly patient care in Erzurum. A total number of 121 nurses and physicians who were not on vacation or absent and accepted to participate were included in the study. Rate of participation in the study was 92%. “Patient Introduction Form” and “Ageism Attitude Scale” were used for data collection. Statistical evaluation of the data was conducted with SPSS for Windows 20.0.

Results:

Most of the healthcare professionals are women (52.9%), 57 were men (47.1%); 31 were physicians (25.6%), and 90 were nurses (74.4%). It was determined that total score of the Ageism Attitude Scale of healthcare professionals was 83.04±10.43, subscale of life limitation of elderly was 35.23±5.64, subscale of positive discrimination of elderly was 29.80±5.77, and subscale of negative discrimination of elderly was 18.00±3.92 points.

Conclusions:

It was found that healthcare workers at intensive care units had a positive attitude towards elderly, majority of the participants defined senility by the negative statements such as weakness, illness and mental decline, and healthcare workers who did not live at the same house with their elderlies, got high scores in negative attitude subscale towards elderlies. As a conclusion, it is suggested that information about aging and aging process should be better integrated in service training programs of healthcare professionals.