AN ATTITUDINAL INTERVENTION WITH OCCUPATIONAL-THERAPY STUDENTS - 9 YEARS LATER

Consideration of students' perceptions of and attitudes toward older p eople deserves attention in the professional curricula of the various health care disciplines. Students' perceptions can be influenced throu gh their observations of and work with clinicians who, as role models, demonstrate positive or negative perceptions of older people. The hyp othesis for this attitudinal survey stated that a values-oriented educ ational approach could be a positive influence on the attitudes of sen ior occupational therapy (OT) students not only while they were in sch ool, but also after they had graduated and entered practice. The pre/p ost data for 226 OT students (1982-1990) confirm that the intervention was a positive influence at the time it was administered. Follow-up d ata were obtained from a 37-item survey instrument mailed to graduates from 1982 to 1989 (N = 208, return rate = 82.7%). The graduates had w orked an average of 34 months; 94% had worked with people 65 years of age older, and 62% spent 50% or more of their work time with older peo ple. Seventy-nine percent of that number remembered the specific inter vention, and 82% of that number stated they had been influenced by the intervention at the time it had been administered. Since entering pra ctice, 55% said that their perception of older people continued to be influenced by the intervention, and 89% of that number said their prac tice with OT was influenced by the intervention to some or to a great degree.