title: Nurse Practitioner Students Learning From the Medically Underserved: Impact on Attitude Toward Poverty.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  With no antecedent in the literature, this project examined the effects of exposure to clients living in poverty on nurse practitioner (NP) students' attitude toward poverty.
  
  
  METHODS
  Students participating in adult health courses completed the Attitude Toward Poverty Scale at the start and end of the course. Eight students were immersed for a minimum of 32 hours with a faculty preceptor in a clinic caring for low-income, uninsured patients. These students also responded to open-ended questions regarding their experience.
  
  
  RESULTS
  NP students had an increase in positive attitude toward impoverished patients after the course (p < 0.001). Themes that emerged from the immersion experience were (a) misconception, (b) lack of knowledge about cost and access to care, (c) importance of the clinical environment on learning to be an NP, and (d) empowerment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Planned clinical rotations with medically underserved populations may serve to dispel misconceptions about low-income patients.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ritten
authors.forename: Julee
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Waldrop
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wink
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054521:Cultural Competency / Q000193:education*; D003479:Curriculum; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D008875:Middle Aged; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000193:education*; D024802:Nurse's Role; D011203:Poverty; D011231:Preceptorship / Q000379:methods*