Abstract: Greece is a country of ageing population. In the coming years, there will be a continuously increased demand for more nurses to be employed in the care of elderly patients. Literature suggests that the attitudes and values of the future health care providers will influence their decision to work with elderly people, as well as the quality of care delivered to them. In this paper the authors report the results of a pilot study conducted prior to the main research study. A qualitative approach was adopted. The objectives of the study were to 1. Examine students’ attitudes towards the care of elderly persons. 2. Identify relationships between prior experience with an elderly family member and students’ attitudes. 3. Identify relationships between nursing education and knowledge and attitudes held by students. 4. Discover students’ perceptions of nursing staff behaviour towards the elderly patients. 4. Find out future possible preferences of student nurses regarding work with elderly patients. Five students of the seventh semester were voluntarily interviewed. All students had experiences with grandparents. They felt that this experience affected their attitudes towards the care of their clients. Positive feelings were mainly described as love and affection. Negative feelings were attributed to loneliness experienced by elderly patients, and to improper care delivered to them. The students felt that nursing education was effective in preparing them to provide better care. Four out of five students replied that they would like to work with elderly patients after graduation.