Physical Therapy Students' Attitudes toward Older Adults

The purpose of this study was to investigate physical therapy students' attitudes toward working with older adults. A basic qualitative design geared toward discovering physical therapy students' attitudes, where themes emerge from the findings, was used. The setting was a CAPTE Accredited Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program in a 4-year, private not-for-profit university in a large city in the Midwest with a Carnegie Classification of Doctoral Universities: High Research Activity. The major themes that emerged from semi-structured participant interviews were 1) Congruence of emotion and thought due to early exposure, 2) A potpourri of emotions and thoughts, 3) Peer influence, 4) Relevancy of clinical experiences, 5) Clinical mentorship, and 6) University mission. Overall, built on the long-standing relationship with grandparents, physical therapy students interviewed in this study had emotional and positive attitudes toward older adults. In addition, the mentoring provided by clinical instructors in the clinical education portion of the curriculum was perceived to be the most beneficial when it came to preparing physical therapy students for practice with older adults. Of course, more research on physical therapy students' attitudes toward older adults is needed. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]