title: Patterns of race and gender representation in health assessment textbooks.
abstract: With growing diversity in the nursing profession and in society, nursing educators face the challenge of selecting textbooks that promote cultural competence. A content analysis of photographs in nine health assessment textbooks was conducted in order to determine: 1) how accurately nurses and patients are presented in terms of race and gender; 2) how race and gender representations have changed over the last decade; and 3) how gender representations vary across different types of chapters within the texts. Although some recently published textbooks included a substantial proportion of photos of minority nurses, males and racial minorities were generally under-represented as nurses. Women and most ethnic minorities were consistently under-represented as patients. Female patients were also under-represented in cardiovascular and respiratory chapters and over-represented in chapters on reproduction. Nursing educators should screen visual images in textbooks for evidence of race and gender bias and inform publishers of the need for non-biased teaching materials.
authors.affiliation: Research Associate, Center for Health Services Research and Development, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Physicians Quadrangle, Bldg. N, Greenville, NC 27858-4354, USA. currym@mail.ecu.edu
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Curry
mesh_terms: D018864:Cultural Diversity; D004506:Education, Nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D010781:Photography; D012723:Sex; D013782:Textbooks as Topic; D014481:United States