The social class of patients that public health nurses prefer to serve

Stereotyping by nurses and nursing students: a critical review of research

Thirty-eight empirical studies of stereotyping by nurses and nursing students were critically examined and discussed. The review was conducted and reported as though it were primary research. Subjects were the studies examined, methods were the reviewing procedure, data were attributes of the studies, and results were the conclusions drawn. The research on nurses' stereotypes has been characterized by: the use of one method of data collection, usually questionnaires; the measurement of the presence or absence of specific stereotypes; and nonprobability sampling techniques. There is some evidence that nurses stereotype other people based on age, sex, attractiveness, personality, diagnosis, social class, and family structure. Suggestions for adding to this body of knowledge are made.

Social class in the mental health center

To test whether the preference for middle and upper class clients, found in psychotherapeutic clinics during the 1950s and early 1960s, exists in mental health centers, the relationships between social class and various aspects of psychiatric treatment are investigated in forty mental health centers which vary in several organizational dimensions. In general, clients are given treatment with little or no regard to social class. The variables that account for the different patterns of treatment in the two types of psychiatric treatment organizations are (1) the composition of the staffs; (2) the types and amount of individual psychotherapy given; and (3) the primary organizational goal.