Do the clinical years change medical students' attitudes to old people?

Abstract

Students at the Christchurch School of Medicine have previously been shown to demonstrate a significant improvement in attitudes and knowledge about old people after a 5-week attachment in their first clinical year (fourth year of their medical course). The original cohort were retested between 1 and 3 years after graduation. A modified version of the Rosencranz-McNevin Semantic Differential Scale was used to measure general attitudes to old age and a Likert scale to measure attitudes to medical care and knowledge. Attitudes measured by the Rosencranz-McNevin Scale showed no change between the completion of the fourth-year attachment and graduation. The Likert scale showed no change in knowledge but the attitude score showed a worsening (P < 0.001). Knowledge and attitudes of graduates who had completed a house office attachment in health care of the elderly were better than those who had not (knowledge P < 0.01, attitude P < 0.06).