Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Nurses in Canada are caring for increasing numbers of older adults. Despite a growing body of knowledge about how to best care for an aging population this information is translated into action in a limited way. Although over crowding in hospitals and lack of nursing time to meet older adults complex needs has been given some attention, the influence of attitudes and beliefs towards aging in putting best practice knowledge into practice has received very limited attention. This project proposed a grounded theory study to examine how nurses attitudes and beliefs influence how they put knowledge about older adults into practice. It is anticipated that approximately thirty nurses from a variety of work settings and education and experience backgrounds will be needed to complete this study. Observations of nurses everyday experiences will also be included in this study. The data will be analyzed concurrently with the data collection, so that decisions about next data collection strategies can be theoretically generated. The researcher will be committed to careful reflection of personal biases and influences throughout the research process. The end result will be a mid-range theory explaining how nurses' attitudes and beliefs about aging influence how they put knowledge about older adults into practice. This theory would assist in identifying educational strategies and workplace supports which could support nurses to give the best possible care to an aging population.