1.1 Background:
As populations grow older, we can question the effect this has on our attitudes towards old age. Negative attitudes lead only to ageism, a process of systematic stereotyping of, and discrimination against people because they are old(1)
. Ageism generates and reinforces a fear and denigration of the ageing process and legitimizes the use of chronological age to mark out classes of people who are systematically denied resources and opportunities(2)
. Old people apart from being segregated and stereotyped by the younger generation in different occasions in the society(3)
, seems to be experiencing the same issue in the hospital setting while being attended to by the medical and healthcare professionals which includes the radiographers. The essence of this research is to find out the attitudes the healthcare professionals and in particular the radiographers, exhibit towards the geriatric patients.A geriatric patient is an older person with impaired overall function. There is no set age, but he or she is usually over 75years old with chronic illness(es), physical impairment, and/or cognitive impairment. Most developed world countries have accepted the chronological age of 65years as a definition of ‘elderly’ or older person, but like many westernized concepts, this does not adapt well to the situation in Africa. Realistically, if a definition in Africa is to be developed, it should be either 50 or 55 years of age, but even this is somewhat arbitrary and introduces additional problems of data comparability across nations. According to the World Health Organization, the traditional African definition of an elder or ‘elderly’ person correlate with the chronological ages of 50 to 65years depending on the setting, region and the country(4)
. Adding to the difficulty of establishing a definition, actual birthdates are quite often unknown because many individuals in Africa do not have an official record of their birth date. In addition, chronological or “official” definitions of ageing can differ widely from traditional or community definitions of when a person is older.As these people advance in age, the ageing process is of course a biological reality which has its own dynamic, largely beyond human control. Due to the fact that there exists so many changes in both the anatomical and physiological make up of these people which is beyond their control, many of them takes to chronic sickness and visits the hospital on regular basis and some are even hospitalized. In the hospital, these geriatric patients meet with different medical and healthcare professionals including the radiographers in the radiology department.
An attitude can be defined as a positive or negative evaluation of people, object, event, activities, ideas, or just about anything in your environment(5)
. An attitude can also be defined as a favourable or unfavourable evaluation of something(6)
. People can also be conflicted or ambivalent towards an object, meaning that they simultaneously posses both positive and negative attitudes toward the item in question. Certain attitudes and behavioural displays are being exhibited by medical professionals to their patients especially the geriatric patients in their different places of work. The medical radiographer is not an exception to those behavioural displays. By the way, a radiographer or medical imaging technologist is a trained health professional who performs medical imaging by producing high quality x-ray pictures or images used to diagnose and treat injury or disease. It is an important part of medicine and a patient’s diagnoses and treatment is often dependent on the x-ray images produced. Just as it is confirmed that the radiographer and the radiology department plays an important role in the general wellbeing of the geriatric patients, it is important for the radiographer to know that some of their attitudinal displays send some form of signals to their patients especially the geriatric patients. These signals might be a positive one which may aid in the overall good result being achieved between the radiographer and the geriatric patient. It may also send a negative signal which may worsen the condition of both the radiographer and the patient, for instance, a radiographer may disgust every time he or she encounters a geriatric patient and in which he may lose control of the situation thus ending up making the patient’s condition worsened. Or for a radiographer that lacks a proper manner of talking and addressing these people, will succeed in aggravating the patients.Hence, the research is geared towards evaluating the attitude of radiographers towards their geriatric patients in tertiary hospitals within Enugu urban.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS
(3)
may be experiencing the same issue in the hands of radiographers in the radiology department.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study will cover all radiographers in tertiary hospitals in Enugu urban, which includesUniversity of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu State University Teaching Hospital (ESUTH) andNational Orthopaedic Hospital Enugu (NOHE). It will include intern radiographers and radiographers presently undergoing their youth service in the above named hospitals. The scope also covered all the geriatric patients in the hospitals of study.