Nurse's knowledge of ethical and legal issues in elderly care

Unawareness of nurses about ethical and legal issues in elderly care would cause physical and mental damage in elderly. This study was conducted in Kashan during 2013 to evaluate the nurses’ knowledge of ethical and legal issues related to the elderly care. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 nurses working in the hospitals of Kashan University of Medical Sciences. Data collected by a questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted to demographic data and had 25 questions on ethical and legal issues in elderly care and a question regarding the most ethical errors in elderly care from nurse's perspective. Data were analyzed using Mann-whitney U and Kruskalwallis testes. Overall, knowledge of ethical and legal issues in elderly care was suboptimal. A significant relationship was observed between nurse's knowledge of ethical and legal issues in elderly care with their levels of education (P=0.001) and having or not having training in the field of aging and the nurse's knowledge on ethical and legal issues in elderly care (P=0.001). Giving the standard care is dependent on nurse's knowledge; it is recommended that the necessary training programs to be conducted through workshops and continuing education.