out what happens to people as they grow old (McEwen, 1990).
It seems reasonable to believe that, at least, among people with medical training, ageism is not a problem. However, this claim is untrue. Health care providers also hold incorrect and negative attitudes toward older people. In this regard, Reed, Beall and Baumhover (1992), explored knowledge about aging, attitudes toward the elderly, and perceived barriers to gerontological education among graduate students in nursing and social work. Participants in the study were aged 21 50 years (mean age 33.9 years).
Subjects were twenty-seven master's level students at a school of nursing and 40 master's level students at a school of social work completed questionnaires containing Palmore's Facts on Aging Quiz (which measures factual knowledge of aging); the Old People Scale, (which measures attitudes toward older people); and Barriers to Teaching Gerontology, (which measures perceptions of the relative importance of a number of barriers to the teaching of geriatrics).
The students correctly answered 64 percent of the items on the Palmore quiz, which the authors referred to as a "disturbing" level of performance. Increased age of respondent was associated with more knowledge of aging.
Attitudes toward old people tended to be neutral, rather than strongly positive or negative. Positive attitudes were related to knowledge of aging and having lived with an elderly person. Based on their findings, Reed et. al (1992) concluded that the knowledge deficits of the sample suggest that there are barriers in students' academic preparation for working effectively with older clients.
found ageism-biased attitudes among samples of graduate students in nursing.
Similarly, Downe-Wamboldt and Melanson (1990) observed that a sample of nursing students felt themselves to be social distant from older people and actually experienced anxiety over having to care for them. Finema...