Elder abuse and neglect: A survey of pharmacy students’ opinions, experience, and knowledge

PurposeTo determine pharmacy students’ awareness of state reporting laws for elder abuse and neglect (EAN) and recognition of the signs and symptoms. An additional purpose was to understand whether education on EAN was needed in the pharmacy curriculum. A voluntary survey was distributed to 365 third- and fourth-year pharmacy students; 328 were returned with usable data. The questions on EAN were organized into three general areas: opinion, experience, and knowledge.ResultsWith regard to opinion, 98% of responding students felt that identifying EAN was important, and 76% felt that educational content about EAN should be included in the curriculum. Only 23.4% of responding students felt adequately trained to report a case of suspected EAN. While 24% of responding students had suspected a case of EAN at some point in time, only 1.8% had ever reported a case of EAN. Moreover, 44% of responding students correctly identified that Illinois law required them to report a suspicion of EAN, 7.3% answered no, and 48.6% did not know. Other sections investigated whether pharmacy students were familiar with the culture of EAN and able to identify common signs and symptoms of EAN. Overall, 60% correctly identified family members are more often abusers than strangers; 92.3% correctly identified that dementia makes an older adult more vulnerable to abuse.ConclusionOverall, this study found a need to educate pharmacy students on the issue of EAN. Pharmacy students must be aware of the signs and symptoms to detect EAN. They must also understand reporting responsibilities.