Student radiographers' attitudes towards the older patient – A longitudinal study

Introduction: To design, implement and evaluate the effect of an educational intervention on student radiographer attitudes across their educational tenure. Methods: In the first phase, an educational intervention that involved didactic lectures, reflective exercises and simulation suits, aimed at improving student radiographer attitudes towards the older person, was designed and implemented. Kogan's attitudes towards older people (KoP) scale was administrated at five test points; pre-intervention; post-intervention; 6 months post intervention; 12 months post intervention and 24 months post intervention. At the final test point these quantitative data was supplemented with qualitative data for triangulation of the findings. Results: Students held positive attitudes towards older people pre intervention, these increased significantly post intervention (p = 0.01). However, this increase in positive scores was not noted at 6 months and 12-months post intervention. At 24-months post intervention, although there was a slight increase in positive attitudes when compared to the 6 and 12 month scores, this increase was not found to be significant (p = 0.178) Conclusion: The results post-intervention suggested that an educational intervention can have a significant impact on student radiographer's attitudes towards older people. However, the qualitative data suggests that experiences on initial clinical placement can be detrimental to attitudinal scores, particularly if the intervention does not include Dementia care strategies. - Highlights: • Reports the effects of an intervention to improve attitudes to older people. • Post-intervention attitudes were significantly more positive. • At 6 months and 12 months post-intervention mean positive scores were reduced. • At 24 months post-intervention scores had again increased. • The qualitative data suggests interventions should include Dementia care.