Ageism among newly graduated nurses: The influence of sociodemographic variables and gerontogeriatric nursing education

This study analyzed the relationship between ageism, sociodemographic variables and gerontogeriatric nursing education in newly graduated nurses to identify key factors influencing ageism.

Ageism presents a significant challenge in healthcare, particularly in caring for older adults. Newly graduated nurses play a crucial role in shaping the future of gerontogeriatric care and their attitudes, behaviors and perceptions towards aging can impact the quality of care.

A nationwide survey of newly graduated Portuguese nurses was performed.

The survey included sociodemographic variables, gerontogeriatric nursing education characterization and the Ambivalent Ageism Scale. The Mann-Whitney test, Kruskal-Wallis and Multiple linear regression were used for data analysis.

The samples included 242 newly graduated Portuguese nurses (median age of 23; 83.9 % women). The results showed that nurses who reported that their clinical training primarily focused on basic care scored significantly higher on the Hostile Ageism (HA) scale (p = 0.038). Moreover, higher scores on the Benevolent Ageism (BA) subscale (p = 0.045) were associated with confidence working with older adults, while higher HA subscale scores were associated with communication difficulties, especially with patients with neurocognitive impairments (p = 0.048). Logistic regression showed a significant relationship between self-reported confidence and BA scores, as well as between an emphasis on basic care in training and increased HA scores.

Ageism among newly graduated nurses stems primarily from educational aspects of the nursing curriculum. These findings suggest improving gerontogeriatric education in nursing curricula, particularly in building confidence and communication skills, could attenuate ageism in this group of healthcare professionals.