ATTITUDES OF NURSING STUDENTS TOWARDS OLDER PEOPLE WITH THEIR EMPATHIC TENDENCY IN SINOP HAVING THE OLDEST POPULATION IN TURKEY.

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the empathic tendencies, attitudes of nursing students towards older people and related factors. Methods: This descriptive study was performed with 180 nursing students who accepted to participate in the study in Sinop University, Nursing Department during the 2014-2015 academic year. Student Identification Form, Empathic Tendency Scale (ETS) and Kogan's attitude towards older people scale (KAOP) were used in order to collect data. Percentage distribution and t-test, Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test were used to analyze the data. Results: Of all participants, 84.4% of them were female and the mean age was 21.68?2.18. The mean ETS score of students was 66.07? 24.44 and the mean KAOP scale score of students was 124.32?42.99. It was found that nursing students had positive attitudes towards older individuals and their emphatic tendency was above the moderate level. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between the emphatic tendency of students who had positive attitudes towards older people (81.26?12.38) compared to the emphatic tendency of students who had negative attitudes towards older people (40.46?12.38) (p<0.05). Conclusion: Conclusively emphatic tendency level is very important in order to improve the positive old age perception.