Purpose: To evaluate whether medical student participation in TimeSlips (TS), a creative group-based storytelling program, with persons affected by dementia would improve student attitudes toward this patient population. Design and Methods: Fifteen fourth-year medical students from Penn State College of Medicine participated in a month-long…

Purpose of the study: The Alpert Medical School of Brown University began to integrate geriatrics content into all preclerkship courses and key clerkship cases as part of a major medical school curriculum redesign in 2006. This study evaluates students' responses to geriatrics integration within the curriculum using journals kept by volunteer…

Reviewed empirical evidence relevant to taboos for aged sexuality and measured the attitudes of 114 graduate nursing students toward a 68-year-old woman. Nurses read a vignette which either contained or excluded information about the woman's sexual activity and exhibited a statistically significant bias favoring the sexually active version. (JAC)

This study examines how some of the country's future professionals perceive the aged. The data indicate that among social work, law, and medical students there is a striking absence of knowledge of the most basic facts about the elderly. (Author)

Researchers have repeatedly found negative attitudes toward the aged among health professionals. Evaluates the impact of oral health status upon dental student attitudes toward the aged. Suggests that attitudes of students may become initially more negative due to exposure to generally poor oral conditions of elderly patients. (Author)

Administered Palmore's Facts on Aging Quizzes I and II and Facts on Aging Mental Health Quiz as single test to third-year medical students before and after their six-week Community Health and Family Medicine clerkship. Clerkship contributed to small improvement in students' knowledge about aged; net bias scores decreased from pretest to posttest.…

Examined effect of experimental program in gerontology and geriatrics on third-year medical students. Experimental students (n=45) participated in four group sessions emphasizing psychological, sociodemographic, and physiological aspects of aging and interpersonal communication skills. Participants developed more positive attitudes and…

Positively Aging is a program of interdisciplinary teaching materials, with examples from geriatrics and gerontology, designed to teach middle school curricular elements. The purpose of this study was to determine if use of the program materials could change students' images of elders. Results demonstrated that use of the curriculum moved students…

An intergenerational service-learning model to improve well-being of elderly nursing home residents involved 10 college students visiting 20 elderly nursing home residents and interacting with them socially. Interaction resulted in substantial improvements in the residents' psychosocial and physical conditions and in students' perceptions of…

Adolescents' attitudes toward aged were positive, regardless of age. Contact with grand-parents and more positive attitudes were found in middle class compared to lower class, and among whites compared to nonwhites. Questionnaires were given to all 9th and 12th grade students in a rural high school (N=413). (Author)

This exploratory investigation tests the applicability of constructs developed in ethnic contact studies to intergenerational contact. The attitudes of young subjects deteriorated significantly after one semester of classroom interaction with elderly fellow students. Factors operant in the deterioration of attitudes as well as limitations in the…

Describes the development and implementation of a new standardized patient program in a required geriatrics clinical clerkship for fourth-year medical students. A student survey was also conducted. The standardized patient program provided students with direct feedback on their clinical skills--76% of the students favored the program. (RJM)

Purpose: This study examined medical students' interest in geriatrics: Are knowledge, positive attitudes, and prior experience with older adults associated with an interest in geriatric medicine? Design and Methods: Entering University of Michigan medical students completed three surveys: the Revised Facts on Aging Quiz, the University of…

Examined factual knowledge, as well as attitudes toward the elderly, relationships with academic achievement, experience, and cognitive styles. Baccalaureate nursing students scored significantly higher on the Facts on Aging Quiz than Palmore's (1977) sample of undergraduates. Accuracy on the quiz was associated with grade point average but not…

Developed a reliable Student Opinion Quesionnaire to measure changes in attitudes of students in an intergenerational class in freshmen English. Younger students exhibited a positive change in attitude toward their own aging and toward the intergenerational classroom. The intergenerational class had greater student participation than a comparable…