Attitudes towards disability in an undergraduate nursing curriculum: the effects of a curriculum change

Through improved technology and treatment and ongoing de-institutionalisation, nurses will encounter growing numbers of people with disabilities in the New Zealand community and hospitals. Quality of nursing care is influenced by attitude and this study was to evaluate the effect of a curriculum change on the attitudes of two different streams of student nurses towards people with disabilities. During the year 2002 a focused disability unit was introduced to the revised undergraduate nursing curriculum of a major educational institution in New Zealand. The opportunity arose to consider student nurses' attitudes toward disabled people, comparing two streams of students undertaking two different curricula. A convenience sample of students completed the attitudes toward disabled persons questionnaire form B (Yuker, H.E., Block, J.R., Younng, J.H., 1970. The Measurement of Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons. INA Mend Institute, New York), prior to and on completion of their relevant disability unit. No statistically significant difference in scores was demonstrated. A number of possible reasons for this are suggested.