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Chapter 2: Literature Review
Previously, Huber, Reno and McKenney (1992) investigated if there was a change in
attitudes of residential care employees (all personnel including domestic and
administrative)and a change in knowledge level after educational sessions. The Facts
on Aging quiz was used. Each participant attended three one-hour classes that
consisted of simulation of handicaps, normal age-related changes and myths and
realities of ageing. Class materials included hand-outs, audio-visuals and
discussions. Overall they found a significant increase in knowledge from the pre-test
to the post-test (nurses did not show a significant increase but all other personnel
did) and thus concluded that continuing education is an effective means of
influencing the knowledge and attitudes of most personnel in residential care
facilities. However, they recommended that this study be replicated in another
facility and include the addition of a job-satisfaction tool.
Pursey and Luker (1995) challenged the assumption that an identified lack of desire
in nurses to work with older people is due solely to negative attitudes that nurses
hold towards older people. They used a two-phase multi-method approach to
research four educational institutions in the north-west of England. Their aim was to
examine the retrospective experiences that nurses have had in working with older
people, in an attempt to draw out the differences between nurses’ attitudes towards
work with older people. The convenience sample included 25 experienced health
visitors, 62 student health visitors and 40 practice nurses. Phase one administered a
questionnaire that contained forced-choice and open-ended questions and sought
demographic information. Respondents’ current work involvement with people over
65 years of age was also sought. In addition, respondents were asked to write about
incidents from hospital or community settings where they had been involved with
older people and felt they had been “effective” or “ineffective”. Phase two involved
in-depth conversation-style interviews with a sub-sample of the questionnaire
respondents. A total of eight practice nurses, eight student health visitors and six
experienced health visitors participated in the interviews. The researchers found that
high dependency levels of older people and the structure of nursing work with older
people in hospitals means that fewer nurses make this area a positive career choice.
Pursey and Luker (1995) state that one would have expected this to have changed
with the development of individual patient-centred care and public awareness around
this new approach to care, but that this was not the case. Pursey and Luker (1995)