Abstract

Introduction: The discrimination against individuals on the basis of their age has harmful effects on their health, especially when this occurs among future health professionals.

Objective: the primary aim of this study was to assess the perception of student nurses towards ageism.

Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional design. Questionnaires were used in collecting data from 188 nursing students in three purposively selected nursing schools in Nigeria, using a random sampling technique. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Chi-square was used to test the relationship between variables at α0.05.

Results: The mean age of participants was 21+2.9 years. Half (50%) demonstrated a low level of knowledge, about the same number (51.6%) had a good perception while the majority (66.5%) had a negative attitude towards ageism. Students’ knowledge of ageism has a strong influence on their perception of it (p = 0.015).

Conclusion: Stakeholders need to institute strategies that will improve students’ attitudes towards ageism, and such should be well spelled out in the training curricula. Further studies need to be performed on interdisciplinary approaches to elderly care.

Keywords:Perception; Ageism; Knowledge; Attitude