Ageism against older patients in nursing: conceptual differentiations and the role of moral sensitivity

ABSTRACT

Ageism in nursing is difficult to identify, prevent and combat. Using a mixed-method approach in two exploratory cross-sectional studies (N = 512), we brought support for a proposed conceptual difference between ageism toward older adults and ageism toward older patients which may facilitate the identification of ageism in healthcare settings. We also investigated whether nurses’ moral sensitivity could buffer the negative effect of socio-cognitive factors on ageism against older patients. Our findings supported our assumption, suggesting that fostering nurses’ moral sensitivity could be a promising new avenue to prevent and combat ageism in nurses, together with comprehensive gerontological education meant to decrease stereotyping and help nurses fulfill their roles of moral advocates against older patient discrimination.

KEYWORDS:

• Ageism
• older patients
• nurses
• moral sensitivity
• knowledge of aging

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Ethics approval statement

The research received ethical approval from the Ethical Committee of the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, on behalf of the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania.

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, CNCS - UEFISCDI, under Grant PN-III-P1-1.1-PD-2019-0982, within PNCDI II; Unitatea Executiva pentru Finantarea Invatamantului Superior, a Cercetarii, Dezvoltarii si Inovarii