Abstract
Background: Sensory impairments are common among older adults. These impairments have consequences on
activities of daily living and communication with others. Such impairments for the elderly remain a significant public
health issue globally. This study aimed to assess effect of nursing guidelines on first-year nursing students’ knowledge
and reported practice towards sensory impairment among the elderly.
Method: A Pre- and post-test research design was utilized in this study to assess first year nursing students’ knowledge
and reported practice towards sensory impairments among the elderly. It was carried out at faculties of nursing
affiliated with three universities with a purposive sample (n = 531) of the first-year nursing students. The study was
conducted in four phases: Pre-intervention assessment, nursing guidelines development, nursing guidelines implementation,
and post-test after one month. The pre- and post-tests were conducted online and included three parts
to collect the required data about students’ socio-demographic data, students’ knowledge about the five senses and
changes in these senses among the elderly, and the students’ reported practice for coping with changes in these
senses among elderly. Student t-tests and an ANOVA test were used to compare means. For qualitative data, comparison
was done using chi-square. Pearson correlation coefficient was used for detecting the relations between continuous
variables of the study.
Results: There are statistically significant differences between the studied subjects means score knowledge and
reported practice about the five senses among elderly people in the pre- and the post-tests (P = 0.001). At pre-test
the total score mean of students’ knowledge was 24.25 while at post-test became 28.16. At pre-test the total score
mean of students’ reported practice was 38.40 while at post-test became 44.43. There is a relationship between students’
knowledge and their reported practice at both pre-test and post-test with P value = 0.001.
Conclusion: The levels of the first-year nursing students’ knowledge and reported practice of the studied sample
towards sensory impairment among the elderly were improved after implementation of the nursing guidelines. So,
it is recommended that these nursing guidelines could be embedded within the undergraduate curriculum. Raising
students’ awareness through providing lectures, and workshops on sensory impairment among elderly and how to
deal with them, and train students on how to communicate with sensory impairment among the elderly.