Aim: To evaluate the nursing students’ perceptions about nursing home as a learning environment and the relationship between attitudes towards elderly and nursing home clinical environment assessment.
Methods: This study was conducted as a descriptive study. 82 students enrolled public health nursing course in one university in Ankara/Turkey, completed their clinical placement in the spring term of 2015-2016 academic year were targeted, of them 22 students accepted to take part in the study. Students were informed and asked to take part in study after final exam of the course. Those who accepted were given the Socio-demographic form, Clinical Learning Environment Scale and Kogan’s Scale of Attitudes Towards the Elderly. In the same session completed forms were taken. Ethical committee approved study and consent was obtained from students.
Findings:Mean age of students was 23 (min:22-max:24), 90.9% of them were women, 95.5% single, 45.5% living with their family, 31.7% living at least one of their grandparent, and 59.1% of them stated they can choose to work in nursing home after graduation. Students’ clinical learning environment scale mean score was 68.59±6.59 and, the Kogan’s Scale of Attitudes towards the Elderly total score was 163.40± 20.77. The subscale score for positive attitudes to elderly was 82.77±13.05 and for negative attitudes was 80.63±12.43. There is no statistically significant relationship between attitudes towards elderly and clinical environment assesment scale.
Conclusion: Students evaluated their clinical learning environment in nursing homes as neither positive nor negative as well as their attitudes towards elderly.