Factors Related to Physical Therapy Students' Decisions to Work with Elderly Patients

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors related to physical therapy students' decisions to work with elderly patients subsequent to graduation. Questionnaires, distributed to students in graduating classes of seven entry-level master's degree programs and seven baccalaureate degree programs, were returned by 326 participants. The questionnaires included 20 questions within four categories--biographical (3), experiential (7), perceived socioeconomic (3), and attitudinal (7) factors--plus 1 question to determine whether students intended to work with elderly patients. Chi-square tests (p less than .05) determined significant relationships between the participants' intentions to work with elderly people and their answers to 10 of the questions (1 biographical, 3 experiential, and 6 attitudinal). The answers to 1 of these experiential questions and 4 of these attitudinal questions were significant at the .001 level. No perceived socioeconomic questions were significant. Our results may help in planning strategies to encourage physical therapy students to work with elderly people.