Elderly Patient Characteristics Associated With Nurses' Attitudes

Abstract

The relationship of characteristics of elderly nursing home patients and subjective feelings of the nursing personnel who care for these patients was investigated in this study. Objective patient assessments were completed on the sample of 33 patients indicating relative levels of functioning in 55 areas of assessment. These areas included characteristics of the patients describing physical, rental, psychological, and social functioning. Nursing assistants who routinely provide direct care to these patients rated each patient on a 7-point scale according to their subjective feelings about caring for the patient. Correlational analyses were performed comparing the objective measures of relative levels of patient characteristics and the subjective_ ratings of the nursing assistants' feelings about caring for these patients. Relative independence in self-care and socially acceptable behaviors of patients were found to be significantly correlated with favorable ratings of these patients, while physical dependence and socially unacceptable behaviors were correlated with unfavorable ratings of patients.