Attitude change amongst nursing students towards Australian aborigines

A pre-test and post-test impact evaluation design was used to determine if attendance at a workshop conducted by Australian aboriginal health personnel improved the attitudes of nursing students towards Aborigines. A three-hour workshop attended by first year nursing students comprised an introduction, video and discussion. A self-administered questionnaire, consisting of socio-demographic background questions and attitude rating scale, was used to measure students' attitudes before and after the workshop. The Wilcoxon signed rank test and paired t-test were used to test for significant improvement in students' total attitude scores. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine if socio-demographic variables contributed to the changes in the students' attitude scores. Complete data were collected from 246 students. Results indicate improvement in attitude scores. Socio-demographic variables did not contribute to these scores.