Abstract:
There continues to be a shortage of health professionals interested in
providing care for the older adult. Part of the problem seems to stem from the
negative perceptions of geriatrics as a clinical speciality. This study examines
the knowledge, attitudes and career decisions of physical therapy students in
Ontario before and after an educational intervention.
Surveys were conducted with 144 physical therapy students from five
universities before and after their geriatrics course in order to measure their
knowledge, attitudes and interest in working with older adults. The incoming
class of physical therapy students (n = 1 86) acted as control subjects for the
study. The Revised Palmore Facts On Aging Quiz measured the students'
knowledge of aging (Miller & Dodder, 1980). The Revised Tuckman-Lorge
(Axelrod & Eisdorfer, 1961) and the Kogan Old People Scales (Kogan, 1961)
were used to examine attitude. An environmental scale was developed based
on the work of Snape (1986) to measure the impact of the working conditions
on the students' career choices. A 10-point Likert-type scale based on the work
of Michlelutte & Diseker (1985) was modified and used to measure career
interest in working with the elderly.
On independent sample t-tests, positive attitudes were related to the
demographic characteristic of gender; ethnicity was negatively related; and
marital status was found to be unrelated to attitude (fi<.05). Having a
relationship with an older adult and taking courses in gerontology were also found to be positively related to attitude (fi<.05). Results on a betweensubjects
design which compared students before and after the course found
that knowledge scores improved from pretest to posttest (fi<.05). In general,
attitude scores improved from T1 to T2 on both measurement tools (b<.05).
The environmental and vocational interest scales yielded statistically significant
differences between the control and experimental groups during the
intervention period (p<.05). The results of this research indicated that
knowledge and attitudes improve after an educational intervention; however,
there was little impact on the students' overall career decisions. Further
research is indicated to examine the complex relationship between attitude and
behaviour and its impact on students' career choices. In addition, the impact of
geriatric clinical environment on students' attitudes and career decisions needs
to be further explored.
