Knowledge and Attitudes of Graduating Medical, Pharmacy, and Nursing Students Toward Geriatric Care at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, North West Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: The education and training of health professions students in geriatric care is critical to their future clinical practice. However, the knowledge and attitude of health science students toward geriatric care are barely studied in Ethiopia.
Objective: This study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitude of graduating medical, pharmacy, and nursing (MPN) students towards geriatric care at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, North West Ethiopia.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 301 graduating MPN students using stratified random sampling from June 30, 2022, to July 30, 2022. The data was collected by using previously validated self-administered structured questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS version 26. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were done. A statistical significance was declared at a p-value < 0.05.
Results: The majority of graduating MPN students had either neutral (70.76%) or positive (16.28%) attitudes towards older people; however, a greater amount (88%) of them had poor knowledge of geriatric care. The knowledge of female students was significantly less favorable than the knowledge of male students (p-value < 0.001). The knowledge and attitudes of pharmacy and nursing students were significantly lower than medical students (p-value < 0.001). The attitude mean rank score of students aged ≤ 25 years was significantly lower than students aged > 25 years (p-value < 0.001).
Conclusion: The majority of graduating MPN students had poor knowledge despite having either a neutral or positive attitude toward geriatric care. Female students had lower knowledge scores than male students. Similarly, pharmacy and nursing students had lower knowledge and attitude scores than medical students, and the attitude score of students aged ≤ 25 years was lower than students aged > 25 years. Their respective departments should implement a strategy to improve the knowledge of MNP students.