Correlates of prejudice in nursing students

Nursing is still a predominantly White profession, and many nursing students have had little experience with people of diverse races or sexual identities. The purpose of this study was to examine racial awareness and attitudes toward sexual minorities in incoming nursing students. The findings indicated that students had a low awareness of race issues but stated that they felt comfortable working with people of other races. Attitudes toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual people were more negative and fewer students reported feeling comfortable working with sexual minorities. Low racial awareness and negative attitudes about sexual minorities were related. Parental attitudes toward sexual minorities were related to student level of comfort working with sexual minorities, but parental attitudes about racial minorities were not related to student level of comfort with people of other races. The correlates of low racial awareness and negative attitudes about sexual minorities were similar.