Caring for residents : the effects of education on staff attitude and knowledge in an aged care facility

Providing quality health care to elderly people assumes knowledge and positive attitudes of the people involved. This paper reports the findings of a study aimed to investigate whether education over a 12 month period affected the knowledge and attitudes of staff at an aged care facility towards older people. A pre-post test design was utilised to compare the knowledge and attitudes of a sample of 47 staff at the facility. The results indicate that the staff who provided direct care to residents showed a higher increase in knowledge and attitude than those who did not. While 44 of the 47 attended some form of education, the staff who attended specific aged care education sessions showed more positive attitudes and greater knowledge of older people at the end of the 12 months. These results imply that education of staff in aged care facilities is important and should be directed to topics specifically relevant to aged care.