Medical students' attitudes to old people and career preference: the case of Nottingham Medical School.

Medical students' attitudes to the elderly population were compared at entry to and exit from a month-long clinical attachment in the Department of Health Care of the Elderly at Nottingham University. The study investigated clinical students for the 1983-4 and 1986-7 academic years using a questionnaire employing a Rosencranz-McNevin semantic differential scale to measure general attitudes to old age and a Likert scale to measure attitudes to medical care. A question was also asked about career preferences. Improvements in attitudes during the month were noted for both cohort groups, but different trends for the two groups are discussed in the context of the growing pre-clinical effects of such a specialist department in a medical school.