Nurses’ attitudes towards older people: A systematic review Yun-e Liu a , Ian J. Norman b , Alison E. While b, * a PLA Second Artillery General Hospital, Beijing, China b King’s College London, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, United Kingdom What is already known about the topic?  The ageing population with their increasing functional dependency is one of the most challenging problems of contemporary societies which has a direct effect upon global public health and social care systems and increasing the demands for nursing care.  Negative attitudes towards older people and myths of ageing are ubiquitous. Older adults are viewed as a nurse’s burden and an obstacle to the more important work of caring for younger adults.  There is no previous systematic review of nurses’ attitudes towards older people and related variables despite the importance of the topic and the increasing global migration of nurses. What this paper adds  This review synthesizes the international research published in the English and Chinese language journals relating to registered and student nurses’ attitudes towards older people and the potential underpinning variables.  Registered and student nurses’ attitudes appear incon- sistent and slightly less positive since 2000. Preference to work with older people and knowledge of ageing appeared to be the most consistent variables associated with positive attitudes towards older people.  The review highlights the need for more well designed studies to investigate both the attitudes of registered and International Journal of Nursing Studies xxx (2012) xxx–xxx A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 23 April 2012 Received in revised form 22 November 2012 Accepted 23 November 2012 Keywords: Attitudes Ageism Older people Nurse A B S T R A C T Background: The population is ageing globally. Older people are more likely to have chronic diseases and disabilities and have contact with health services. Attitudes of healthcare professionals affect the quality of care provided and individual career preferences. Aim: To examine the international research relating to registered and student nurses’ attitudes towards older people and the potential underpinning variables. Methods: A systematic search of 8 databases covering English and Chinese language publications since 2000 was undertaken which identified 25 papers. Findings: Reported attitudes towards older people were inconsistent with positive, negative and neutral attitudes being noted across registered and student nurses and appear to be slightly less positive since 2000. A range of variables have been examined as potential predictors of nurses’ attitudes with age, gender and education level being investigated most frequently but none were consistent predictors. Preference to work with older people and knowledge of ageing appeared to be associated with positive attitudes towards older people. Conclusions: There is a growing need for registered nurses committed to working with older people, however, there is a dearth of well designed studies which investigate both the attitudes of registered and student nurses and the associated factors, and test interventions to inform workforce strategies. ß 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: alison.while@kcl.ac.uk (A.E. While). G Model NS-2141; No. of Pages 12 Please cite this article in press as: Liu et al., Nurses’ attitudes towards older people: A systematic review. Int. J. Nurs. Stud. (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2012.11.021 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect International Journal of Nursing Studies journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/ijns 0020-7489/$ – see front matter ß 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2012.11.021