Attitudes of future nurses towards the importance of learning the subject of gerontology

Abstract

The article analyses attitudes of nursing students towards learning the subject of gerontology. Since an individual is able to self-assess his/her learning best by thinking over his/her performance and actions helping to develop new skills on the basis of existing knowledge and understanding, the attitudes of nurses were researched by presenting a questionnaire to be completed in writing. The questionnaire consisted of three open-ended questions: what were the most useful aspects in gerontology classes? What did not meet your expectations during gerontology classes? What would you change to improve the content and organization of gerontology classes? 38 second-year college nursing programme students who will acquire the qualification of general practice nurse participated in the survey. Upon analyzing survey data, adequate attitudes of students in general practice nursing study programme towards learning the subject of gerontology were determined. Survey participants emphasized the benefit of lecture material submitted before classes as one of the learning aid methods, also, the variety of learning methods – work in groups, analysis and adjustments of drawn up nursing plans, real-life stories based on experience – were positively assessed.