The Relationship of Nursing Home Caregiver's Awareness and Attitude Towards Elderlies with their Job

The more the number of elderlies, the higher the number of them will be who need to be cared in nursing homes. Most of this care is delivered by formal caregivers working in nursing homes; so, investigating the factors related to quality care is critical. This study was conducted to assess how caregivers’ attitude towards aged people and their awareness about aging are related to their job stress.
This cross-sectional correlational study was implemented during 2015 in all residential care homes of Tehran, were working under Welfare Organization supervision. A total of 83 elderly caregivers in 11 centers who met the inclusion criteria entered the study. Demographic checklist, Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Kogan's Attitudes Toward Older People Scale, and Facts on aging quiz (FAQI) were applied to collect data. The gathered data was analyzed using SPSS-22. Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Spearman tests were used to test the hypotheses.
Findings showed the low awareness levels in regards with the facts of aging (8.18 ± 1.61) and relatively positive attitude towards older adults (121.57 ± 10.28), accompanied by high levels of job stress among the caregivers (102.75 ± 10.09). Job stress showed negative but statistically significant relationship with both awareness and attitude (P Based on the results, low levels of awareness and negative attitude toward aging in the formal caregivers was related to high levels of job stress. Therefore, more attention toward training of formal caregivers to increase their knowledge and correct their attitudes is recommended with the aim of avoiding job stress and preserving the quality care.