The Effects of a Education Program on Caregivers' Knowledge and Attitudes toward the Elderly in Geriatric Hospital
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of education program on the knowledge and attitudes of the elderly for caregivers' in geriatric hospital. This study conducted a nonequivalent control group, pre-post test experimental design. The subjects for this study were 50 caregivers' selected from A city and S city's geriatric hospital which have a bed capacity of 100 patients. The 26 caregivers' were assigned in the intervention group and the other 24 caregivers' to the control group respectively. A pre-survey of general character, knowledge and attitude on the elderly was given to the intervention and control groups before education program. After the pre-survey, education program was only offered to the intervention group twice a weeks from August. 22 to September. 9 , 2011. When the education program was complete, a post-survey was conducted after 4 weeks. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS/PC Window 12.0 program. The homogeneity test between the intervention group and the control group was analyzed using Fisher's exact test and Independent t-test. Group differences in knowledge and attitudes on the elderly were analyzed using paired t-test. A statistical level of significance was set at 0.05. The major findings of this study were as follows: 1) The intervention group showed a higher level in knowledge compared to the control group. This means that the program is effective in promotion knowledge. (t = 12.134, p < .001). 2) The intervention group showed a lower level of negative attitude toward the elderly compared to the control group. This means that the program is effective in promoting a better attitude against the elderly (t = 3.245, p = .003). As a result, this study demonstrates that education program has positively improved caregivers' knowledge and given them an optimistic attitude toward the elderly. Therefore, comprehensive education program should be implemented in order to improve nursing care through understanding the elderly among caregivers' in geriatric hospital.
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