Objectives
This research was carried out to determine the relationship between the levels of compassionate communication and the related factors by measuring the attitudes of the students of Vocational Health Services towards the elderly.
Methods
The study was performed with 527 Health Services Vocational School students. The data were acquired using a questionnaire consisting of 3 parts: the descriptive characteristics form, the Kogan attitude towards elderly people scale, and the compassionate communication scale. SPSS 26 package program was used to assess the data. Number, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and correlation analyzes were used to evaluate the data. The statistical significance level was accepted as p < 0.05.
Results
The mean age of the participants was 20.94 ± 1.98, the mean total score of compassionate communication was 90.90 ± 20.70; Kogan's elderly attitude total score was found to be 137.16 ± 9.79. A statistically significant relationship was found between the total score of the students' compassionate communication scale and their gender, willingness to care for elderly patients, their willingness to work in the geriatric service, the effect of caring for elderly individuals, and the status of setting supportive and compassionate contact with elderly individuals (p < 0.05). A statistically significant relationship was found between the students' Kogan attitude towards the elderly scale and marital status and the existence of elderly family members (p < .05). As a result of the correlation analysis between the students' Kogan attitude towards the elderly scale and the compassionate communication scale sub-dimension and total scores, no statistically significant relationship was seen between the two factors (p > .05).
Conclusions
It is noticed that the compassionate communication levels of the students participating in the research are above the medium level, and the compassionate communication total score of the female students is higher than the male students. It is seen that the factors such as caring for the elderly patient, the urge to choose the geriatric service in working life, the effects of situations such as caring for elderly individuals or communicating with them, and considering that they are gracious towards elderly individuals influence the total score levels of students for compassionate speech, touching, messaging and communication. The outcomes of the study reveal that the students participating in the study have favorable attitudes towards the elderly above the moderate level. At the same time, it has been indicated that the attitudes of students living with an elderly family member at home towards the elderly are more positive than the others.