Abstract
Study design:
Cross-sectional observational study.
Setting:
Acute-care unit and tertiary rehabilitation centre in Ontario, Canada.
Objective:
To evaluate attitudes towards older patients among nurses caring for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI), and examine potential determinants of ageist attitudes.
Methods:
Using Kogan's Old People Scale, this questionnaire-based survey assesses attitudes towards older patients among registered nurses working in an acute-care unit, registered nurses working in a rehabilitation centre and individuals with chronic SCI.
Results:
Although individuals with SCI and nurses working in the rehabilitation setting were statistically comparable regarding their attitudes towards older patients, nurses working in the acute-care unit hold more ageist attitudes than their rehabilitation-nursing counterparts (P=0.003). Among nurses, a higher level of education and working in the rehabilitation setting were associated with fewer ageist attitudes (P<0.03). There was a trend for an association between older age and more positive attitudes towards older patients (P=0.069).
Conclusions:
Our questionnaire-based survey, which appears to represent the population of interest, identified significant differences in the attitudes towards older patients between nurses working in the acute-care setting versus rehabilitation setting who showed similar attitudes towards individuals with SCI. The most reliable factor associated with the nurses’ attitudes was their level of education. Given that the practice of ageism has the potential to prejudice service provision and ultimately recovery of patients with SCI, further research and knowledge dissemination activities for nurses caring for elderly patients with SCI should be sought.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a Lawson Neurology Fellowship from The Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation (JCF), the Krembil Chair in Neural Repair and Regeneration (MGF) and the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute that receives funding under the provincial rehabilitation research program from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care in Ontario (BCC). We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Mr William Adair and the Canadian Paraplegic Association Ontario (CPA-O).
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This study was presented in the 2008 Best Practice Day (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), February 2008; 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Spinal Injury Association (San Diego, CA, USA), June 2008 (The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine, 31(2): 234, Abstract no. 34); Annual Scientific Meeting of the Canadian Association of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (Fredericton, New Brunswick Canada), June 2008; 26th Annual National Neurotrauma Society Symposium (Orlando, FL, USA), July 2008 (Journal of Neurotrauma, 25(7): 863, Abstract no. P38); 2008 Joint American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) and American Society of NeuroRehabilitation (ASNR) Joint Educational Conference (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), October 2008; 3rd National Spinal Cord Injury Conference and 16th Interurban Spinal cord Injury Conference (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), November 2008 (Poster Winner).
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Furlan, J., Craven, B., Ritchie, R. et al. Attitudes towards the older patients with spinal cord injury among registered nurses: a cross-sectional observational study. Spinal Cord 47, 674–680 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2009.23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2009.23
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