Effect of Nursing Guidelines on First-year Nursing Students' Knowledge and Reported practice Towards Sensory Impairments among Elderly

Background: Sensory impairments are more common among older adults. In addition to its consequences on activities of daily livings and communication with others. It has remained major public health issues throughout the whole world. The study aimed to assess effect of nursing guidelines on first-year nursing students' knowledge and reported practice towards sensory impairment among elderly. Method: A quasi-experimental (Pre- post-test) research design was utilized in this study, and it was carried out at three faculties of nursing affiliated to the following Universities; Assiut, South Valley and Tanta. A purposive sample (531) of the first-year nursing students in the three previous mentioned faculties were concluded. The study was conducted in four phases; Assessment, Nursing guidelines development, An nursing guidelines implementation, and Post-test after one month. Online questionnaire was developed by the researchers includes three parts to collect the required data. Student t-tests and 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. A significant was adopted at P value < 0.05 for interpretation of results of significance. Results: There is a statistically significant differences between the studied subjects means score knowledge and reported practice about the five senses among elderly in the pre- and the post-tests, (P = 0.001). Conclusion: The levels of the first-year nursing students’ knowledge and reported practice of the studied sample in the previous mentioned three universities towards sensory impairment among elderly were improved after implementation of the nursing guidelines.