THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NURSES' CHARACTERISTICS, AGEISM, PERCEPTION OF OLDER PEOPLE'S CARE AND NURSING PRACTICE IN HOSPITALIZED OLDER PEOPLE

Background: The increasing number of hospitalized older people with complex health needs requires specific nursing practice. However, study of nursing practice which focused on older people is often overlooked. This study attempts to explore the relationships between nurses' characteristics (age, gender, education, and experience), ageism, perception of older people's care and nursing practice for hospitalized older people. Benner's theory From Novice to Expert and extensive literature review were used in study planning and implementation. Methods: This correlational study involved 120 nurses using simple random sampling from two hospitals in Bandung, West Java. All participants completed four questionnaires: 1) the Demographic questionnaire, 2) the Professional Development of Registered Nurse (PDRS), an instrument to measure nursing practice, 3) the Fraboni Scale of Ageism (FSA), and 4) Nurses' Perception of Care questionnaire. The acquired data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Spearman correlation, and Pearson correlation. Results: The study showed that nursing practice for hospitalized older people has a high performance in the clinical setting ((x) over bar = 4.07, SD = 0.49). Nurses showed moderate level of ageism ((x) over bar = 66.61, SD = 6.0), and high perception of older people care ((x) over bar = 3.61, SD = 0.42). The study showed that age, gender and experience were positively related with nursing practice for hospitalized older people (p < .0.05). Ageism was negatively related with the practice of nurses working with older people. Furthermore, education and perception of older people care were not related with nursing practice for hospitalized older people. Conclusions: Considering that the practice of working with older people is considerably high in the clinical setting, continued efforts to promote advanced training and education of older people care among staff nurses, encourage positive attitude toward older people, and enhance a specialized unit for older persons are recommended.