AIM: The aim of this study is to investigate student nurses' perception, knowledge and awareness of elder abuse. BACKGROUND: It is evidential that elder abuse tends to be unrecognized and is often hidden from public awareness. Nurses who work with older people are expected to be knowledgeable of the causes and detection of elder abuse. DESIGN: A quantitative approach using a questionnaire was used to collect data from 245 student nurses from year 1 and 3 of a 4-year bachelor's degree programme. METHOD: Convenience sampling was used to recruit participants from the two cohorts of the nursing programme. A 25-item questionnaire was used to investigate participants' perception and awareness of elder abuse. RESULTS: Some 47.8% (n=86) year 1 students and 76.9% (n=50) year 3 students perceived that they were not well trained in identifying or handling elder abuse. Year 1 and 3 students ranked the top three most common abuses differently. In addition, 38% of year 3 students thought that it was largely the responsibility of social workers rather than nurses, to deal with cases of elder abuse. CONCLUSIONS: The study reveals that nurses-to-be, who are generally expected to be part of the joint force to protect older people against abuse, did not find themselves adequately prepared to fulfil this responsibility. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The findings provide useful information from which more comprehensive content about elder abuse can be developed in the gerontological nursing curriculum, to better prepare future nurses by increasing their basic understanding of elder abuse.
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