The Impacts of Nursing Staff Education on Perceived Abuse among Hospitalized Elderly People: A Field Trial

Background: Growing elderly population has increased the number of hospitalized older adults and heightened concerns over elder abuse during hospitalization. Objectives: This study sought to examine the impacts of a nursing staff education program on hospitalized older adults' perceived abuse. Methods: This field trial was conducted in 2017 in the Internal Medicine Wards of a University Hospital in Kashan, Iran. Initially, 431 older adults with discharge order were conveniently recruited during 2 months to complete the study questionnaires. Then, all 88 nurses in the study setting were provided with educations about elder abuse. After that, another 310 older adults were consecutively recruited to complete the study questionnaires. Data were collected using an elder abuse questionnaire. Higher mean scores showed lower levels of elder abuse. The Mann-Whitney U, the Chi-square, and the Fisher's exact tests were conducted for data analysis. Results: Before the intervention, the mean scores of the physical, psychological, and neglect subscales of elder abuse were 4.34 +/- 0.71, 3.84 +/- 0.60, and 3.31 +/- 0.72, respectively. After the intervention, these scores significantly increased to 4.56 +/- 0.66, 4.67 +/- 0.53, and 4.19 +/- 0.67, respectively (P = 0.001). The total score before the intervention was 3.79 +/- 0.54 that significantly increased to 4.45 +/- 0.56 after the intervention too (P = 0.001). Conclusion: Nursing staff education is effective in significantly reducing perceived abuse among hospitalized older adults. Therefore, developing and implementing regular abuse-related education programs for nurses are recommended.