Examination of nursing students and nurses' attitudes towards the Elderly (A Descriptive Analytical Study)

population of older people is increasing in the world. Elderly care needs increase therefore, hospitalization increases too. Attitudes of nurses and nursing students toward older people affect the quality of medical care. The aim of this study was to assess the attitudes of nurses and nursing students toward the elderly. this study is a descriptive study of 160 nurses and nursing students of Neyshabur who were selected using purposive sampling. Data were gathered by a questionnaire consisting of two parts: demographic information and Kaplan questionnaire of attitude toward elderly and were analyzed by SPSS software ver. 17 using a Pearson correlation, t-test, and one-way ANOVA. In this study, the mean score of attitude was 110/88 of 240. It was showing 93% of nurses and nursing students had a neutral and (9/1%) had a negative and only 5% had a positive attitude. The majority of nurses and nursing students had a neutral attitude toward the elderly, which shows more attention to nurses and nursing students' education to improve their positive attitude.