The Impact of an Intensive Care Nursing Education Program on the Knowledge About Older Adults and Age Discrimination

Aim: Health and education systems can be strained by rapid changes in population distribution and have not kept pace with these changes. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of intensive care nursing education program (ICNEP) on nurses’ age discrimination and knowledge about the older patients. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted with 26 nurses participating in the ICNEP at a tertiary hospital. The Fraboni scale of ageism (FSA) and the Knowledge-about-Older-Patients-Quiz (KOP-Q) were applied before and after the ICNEP. Results: The nurses’ median age was 30 (23-43) years (53.8% female). After the training, it was found that the mean the FSA score decreased and the mean the KOP-Q score increased. The differences between them were not statistically significant. Conclusion: Geriatric-specific training should be separate, rather than integrated with specialist training, such as intensive care, to raise awareness of age discrimination and geriatric medicine.