Özet:

_Elderly population is growing and healthcare professionals are now providing more care to elderly. Objectives_ The study was conducted in order to examine the attitudes of students of nursing as well as the relationship between their personal characteristics and attitudes towards elderly. Methods_ The cross-sectional descriptive study design was used. The sample consisted of 357students. The data was collected between June and July at 2016-2017 academic year with the sociodemographic characteristics questionnaire form and Turkish version of Kogan’s attitudes the old people scale. Results_ The average positive attitudes score was 74.10 (SD 11.14), negative attitudes score was 64.74 (SD 12.56), total score of KOGAN was 145.35 (SD 16.08). It was determined that more than half of the students were willing to work with elderly after graduation (65%). The statistically significant differences were found by place of longest residence (for positive attitudes, p = .037) and willingness to work with elderly (for positive, negative and total attitudes, p = .000, p = .031, p = .000, respectively), significant differences could not be found in terms of the other variables. Conclusion_ The results of this study indicate that nursing students have slightly positive attitudes towards elderly. It is important that the nursing curriculum includes geriatric courses that will create awareness and knowledge in students regarding care of elderly and attitudes toward the elderly. Adopting a more positive attitude towards elderly means providing more and higher quality care for the elderly_

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