Knowledge And Attitude Towards Care Of Elder Patients And Associated Factors Among Nurses Working In Adult Acute Care Units In Selected Governmental Hospitals Of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2018

Abstract

The percentage of aged population 60 years and above is globally increasing. Quality of nursing care provided to elder people depends on nurse's knowledge and attitude. Knowledge regarding care of patient investigated in a few studies showed that nurses have low to average knowledge with the care of elder patient. Most of the studies across nation revealed negative attitude toward care of elder patient. In Ethiopia, the problems of older people had not addressed adequately. To date, no similar study has conducted in Ethiopia in concerning nurse's knowledge and attitude toward care of elder patient. Objective: To assess knowledge, attitude and associated factors toward care of elder patient among nurses working in adult acute care unit in selected public hospital of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2018. Methods: Institution based cross-sectional study employed using quantitative descriptive study on 457 nurses in five selected government hospital in Addis Ababa. Multi stage sampling and simple random sampling techniques were employed to select the study subjects. Structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Results: Among 457 respondents, 131(28.7%) of nurses' have good knowledge toward care of elder patient whereas 100(21.9%) nurses have positive attitude toward care of elder patient. The result showed that age and year of experience were significantly associated with nurse's knowledge toward care of elder patient (p<0.05, 95% C.I). Similarly, sex, marital status, level of education, year of experience in nursing profession, adequacy of physical space, communicating with patient/family care giver and nurse's knowledge were significantly associated with nurse's attitude toward care of elder patient (p<0.05, 95% C. I). Conclusion and Recommendation: Majority of nurses had poor knowledge and negative attitude toward care of elder patient. Age and year of experience were significantly associated with knowledge. Similarly, sex, marital status, level of education, year of experience, adequacy of physical space, communicating with patient/family care giver and nurse's knowledge of care of elder patient were significantly associated with nurse's attitude toward care of elder patient (p<0.05, 95% C.I). Therefore, federal ministry of health, hospital managers and nursing department should work cooperatively in order to improve nurse's knowledge and enhance their attitude toward care of elder patient.