Mémoire
S. NOEL 4
BACKGROUND : The aging of the population is a worldwide problem that generates
repercussions for the elderly. This issue directly impacts the health care system; however, the
adults over 65 years of age are the largest category of consumers of such health care system.
Many studies demonstrate that nursing students are not willing to take care of the elderly
because the school system does not prepare them enough for such a role. As such they have
an irrational and inadequate representation of the nursing care administered to elderly
individuals. Moreover, a lack of support in clinical experience raises a negative vision of the
elderly care sector leading to a lack of interest in anticipating the student’s career choice.
Therefore, a malfunction is clearly present in the primary training of the nursing students.
OBJECTIVE/METHODS : For this reason, a phenomenological qualitative study has been
conducted in order to analyze, explain, and illustrate the mechanisms of the identity
construction of the nursing student through existing interactions about geriatrics, between
the theoretical and practical fields and the diverse representations. This study was conducted
among twenty five nursing students, doing their internships in the geriatrics unit or in a
nursing home, in two different provinces (Namur and Luxembourg). They were interviewed
following the interview guidelines established beforehand, allowing to treat the data with a
classical approach.
RESULTS : The results are organized around three main hubs emerging from the nursing
students’ discourse: the individual in family and social environment, his life story and his
representations ; the individual at school, in a school environment, acquiring theoretical
knowledge ; and the individual in an internship, in a professional environment, living
professionalizing experiences and causing changes in his representations. These categories
have helped to understand the interactions between them, and to draw a conceptual
scheme of the mechanism of nursing students’ identity construction doing their internship in
a geriatric unit or in a nursing home.
CONCLUSION : The results of this research are consistent with many studies that demonstrate
the existing lack of monitoring and learning in the nursing education system appears to
obscure the field of geriatrics skills.
Key words : elderly – professional identity – nursing education.