Orthodox Christian beliefs and homophobia in baccalaureate nursing students

Nursing pre-licensure and graduate education for LGBTQ health: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer plus (LGBTQ) people experience discrimination and health disparities compared to heterosexual cisgender people. Clinicians report discomfort and insufficient preparation for providing care to LGBTQ people and nursing has been slow to integrate LGBTQ health into curricula.

PURPOSE

Conduct a systematic review to examine and critically appraise peer-reviewed literature on nursing student knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) regarding LGBTQ health and the development/evaluation of LGBTQ health content in nursing curricula.

METHODS

A systematic review was conducted (N = 1275 articles from PubMed, LGBT Health, CINAHL, ERIC, and Health Source-Nursing/Academic Edition).

FINDINGS

Twenty articles met inclusion criteria. Twelve studies described curricular interventions; however, there were few validated tools to evaluate content coverage or KSAs. Four themes emerged specific to LGBTQ health content inclusion.

DISCUSSION

While an emerging science of LGBTQ nursing education has been identified, more work is needed to build and evaluate a comprehensive curricular approach for full programmatic integration of LGBTQ health.

CONCLUSION

As nursing programs build LGBTQ content into nursing curricula, care must be taken to integrate this content fully with the depth of curricular content in population health, social determinants of health, social justice, intersectionality, cultural competence, and political advocacy.

TWEETABLE ABSTRACT

Greater integration of LGBTQ health content into nursing education should be a priority for nursing education.

Nursing Students' Attitudes Toward Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Persons: An Integrative Review

AIM

The aim of this study was to critically appraise and synthesize findings from studies on the attitudes of nursing students toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons.

BACKGROUND

There is paucity of research to assess the attitudes of nursing students toward LGBT persons.

METHOD

An electronic search was conducted using PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, EbscoHost, PsycInfo, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature using medical subject headings terminologies. Search terms used included gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, LGBT, nursing students, baccalaureate nursing, undergraduate nursing, homophobia, homosexuality, sexual minority, attitudes, discrimination, and prejudice.

RESULTS

Less than 50 percent of the studies (5 out of 12) suggested positively leaning attitudes of nursing students toward LGBT persons; six studies reported negative attitudes, and one study reported neutral attitudes.

CONCLUSION

There are some indications that student attitudes may be moving toward positively leaning. Studies published before 2000 reported a preponderance of negative attitudes.

"Never in All My Years... ": Nurses' Education About LGBT Health

In spite of recent calls for patient-centered care and greater attention to the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) patients, nurses still lack basic education about LGBT patient care and, as a result, may have negative attitudes, endorse stereotypes, and/or feel uncomfortable providing care. This study reports on education/training of practicing nurses and explores some of the reasons for nurses reporting feelings of discomfort with LGBT patient care. Transcripts from structured interviews with 268 nurses in the San Francisco Bay Area revealed that 80% had no education or training on LGBT issues. Although most said they were comfortable with LGBT patient care, some of their comments indicated that they might not be providing culturally sensitive care. Implications for nursing education and for policies and procedures of health care institutions are addressed.

Homofobia en estudiantes de enfermería

La homofobia es una actitud negativa hacia personas homosexuales, frecuente en profesionales de la salud y con implicaciones en la salud pública. Este fenómeno había sido poco estudiado en estudiantes de enfermería. El objetivo fue conocer la prevalencia y las variables asociadas a la homofobia en estudiantes de enfermería. La revisión sistemática fue realizada de los artículos de investigación formal en EBSCO, Imbiomed, LILACS, MEDLINE, Ovid y ProQuest. Fueron incluidos los artículos publicados entre 1998 y 2008, escritos en español, inglés o portugués. Fueron utilizadas las palabras llave homophobia, homosexuality y nursing students. Se realizó un análisis descriptivo. Se revisaron ocho investigaciones. Entre el 7 y el 16% de los estudiantes presenta algún grado de homofobia. La homofobia es más común en varones y en los religiosos más conservadores. La homofobia es frecuente en estudiantes de enfermería y puede tener implicancias negativas para el ejercicio de la enfermería.

Moral content and assignment marking: an exploratory study

This small scale exploratory survey investigates the relation between the moral content of student assignments and potential marking behaviour by lecturers. A questionnaire containing a number of deliberately discriminatory statements was sent to a sample of nurse academics, and participants were asked to indicate whether the inclusion of these statements might affect the mark awarded. The sample was too small to undertake tests of statistical significance. However, the results tentatively suggest that a majority of participants would penalise assignments that contain morally questionable statements, and many would cite the code of professional conduct in justification. There appeared to be little difference in the response to statements that offered opinions (normative) or described actions (descriptive). However, differences between responses to statements discriminating against different groups were apparent, with racist statements being penalised more often and with greater severity than other categories. Qualitative data support the quantitative data. Several areas for discussion are identified, including the academic status of nursing, the use of the code of professional conduct, the moral claims made for nurses, a potential 'hierarchy of wrongness', student self censorship, and inconsistency in marking. Further research is justified.

HIV-positive patients' experiences of stigma during hospitalization

The aim of this research study was to explore, within an Irish context, HIV-positive patients' experiences of hospitalization and particularly their experiences of nursing care. This article reports on one of the dominant themes to emerge in the study--the experience of stigma during hospitalization among persons with HIV. A volunteer sample of 10 former inpatients of hospitals in the Republic of Ireland's capital, Dublin, were interviewed in depth, and the resulting data were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis. Findings indicate that while some participants experienced stigma from nurses, such stigma was stratified according to the means by which the disease had been contracted, with drug users expressing the greatest feelings of stigma from nurses. Data also suggest that the type of nursing care favored by many participants was that of segregated care within specialized units. This type of care was preferred because it enabled the patient to avoid being discredited by other patients who did not have the virus. This environment also offered the potential of social support from other patients with similar diagnoses. Finally, patients experienced breaches in confidentiality because of institutional policies that made their disease conspicuous and from some nurses' nonchalance in handling information about their disease. The analysis used in this study draws on Goffman's conceptualizations of stigma to explain the social process underlying the accounts given by study participants.