Introduction:

The increasing older adult population requires special health attention and planning which should include considerations on the attitudes which nursing students demonstrate while taking care of these individuals.

Objective:

To identify the attitudes and caring interest which nursing students have towards older adults.

Material and methods:

This is a descriptive, quantitative, and transversal study which used a survey on a representative sample of 283 nursing students of both sexes to determine their attitudes towards older adults in terms of two scales: the Osgood Semantic differential and the Kogan scale.

Results:

In terms of the Osgood’s scale, 37.7% of students showed a negative attitude towards older adults, while in terms of Kogan’s scale, 47% demonstrated a negative attitude. In average, the students’ attitude was assessed as regular, though the female students exhibited a more positive attitude regardless of the scale. 51.9% of the sample stated they would accept working in the area of gerontology.

Conclusions:

Nursing students in general show more negative than positive attitudes towards caring older adults, particularly regarding issues of fragility and special needs. Strengthening the nursing education programs in terms of improving the experiences and attitudes of nursing students towards the older adult population is recommended.