Improvement in attitudes toward the elderly following traditional and geriatric mock clinics for physical therapy students

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the attitudes of students in a physical therapy education program toward the elderly could be influenced posi-tively by (I) having classroom discussion led by an individual with expertbe in geriatrits and (2) having only individuals aged 65 years or older participate in a specially designed geriatric mock clinic (GMC). Subjects were 47first-year students divided into a control group (n =24) and an experimental group (n =23). Stu-dents in ' the control group participated in two 4-week clinical rotatiom Students in the srpennmmtal group participated in one 5-week clinical rotation and in one 3-week GMC. Students in both groups were given a pretest and a posttest ad-ministration of the Kogan Old People Scale to mess their attitudes toward the elderly. N