Student nurses' attitudes towards adolescents and their care in hospital

The aim of this study was to explore nursing students' attitudes towards adolescents and their care in hospital. A questionnaire containing a series of open-ended questions was emailed to a sample of 50 child branch degree-level students in their second, third or fourth year at a West Midlands university; 14 (28 per cent) responded. It was found that the students had a good knowledge of young people and of their needs while in hospital. They did not report strong negative attitudes towards adolescents but suggested that a number of factors affected their attitudes towards nursing young people, including media reports and the attitudes of mentors. Most of the students expressed a preference for working with younger children, partly because the students lacked experience and confidence, and partly because of a lack of age-appropriate resources in ward areas, which made caring for adolescents more challenging. It was concluded that more could be done to improve student exposure to adolescent patients and that inadequate inpatient facilities, rather than staff attitudes and knowledge, may prevent some young people receiving good quality care in hospital.