nurses knowledge and attitudes regarding nutrition in the elderly backgroundaims nurses in the community are in contact with the elderly at different levels of care the aim of this study was to assess nurses knowledge and attitudes regarding nutritionalcare for the elderly and the impact of their attitude on the quality of assessmentcare they provide to this growing population in need of nutritionalcaremethods a structured questionnaire was distributed by mail to 600 nurses working in maccabihealthcareservices mhs the questionnaire assessed different aspects of elderly nutritionresults the vast majority 91 of the participants reported treating elderly in their practice religious nurses and the nurses with an individual orientation specialty reported more positive attitudes about nutritionalcare for the elderly than others did p005 nurses with a bachelors degree had better attitudes than registered nurses about the importance of nutrition for the elderly p 001 younger nurses were found to be more knowledgeable than older ones p 004 the nurses perceived nutrition as influencing different health conditions and 85 pointed to the importance of feeding at the end of lifeconclusions nurses working in the community recognize the impact of proper nutrition on elderly patients health but need more training in screening for nutritional problems in the elderly