title: Attitudes of nurses toward culturally diverse patients: an examination of the social contact theory.
abstract: This investigation uses the Social Contact Theory to explore to what extent does level of exposure to culturally different patients affect White nurses attitudes toward these patients. Attitudes and biases of 346 hospital-based nurses toward culturally different patients were measured using a self-administered, Likert-type questionnaire titled the Ethnic Attitude Scale. The results of between group t-tests indicated that there were statistically significant differences in biases expressed by White nurses who worked with predominantly African American patients compared to their counterparts who work in a setting with a few African American patients. This study has implications for nursing in education, development, staffing and improvement of the overall quality of nursing care in a global society.
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Rooda
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D011287:Prejudice; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016746:Transcultural Nursing / Q000592:standards; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*