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Is Nurse Education Sexist?: An exploratory study
Stephen Kermode
Associate Professor of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of New England, Northern Rivers Campus, NSW
Abstract
A cross-sectional population survey of students enrolled at an Australian university was undertaken using a web-based survey, to examine the perceived prevalence of sexism and gender discrimination in each of their programs, with the aim of determining how nursing student perceptions compare to those of non-nursing students. A total of 221 students participated in the study.
Results indicated that there was a perception of sexism involved in a range of programs, as well as perceived gender discrimination. Male students in general felt significantly more affected by this perceived discrimination than did female students. Moreover, students in the nursing program felt significantly more affected by both sexism and discrimination than non-nursing students, and this was particularly the case for male nursing students. These findings may have implications for the recruitment and retention of males in nursing, in a context where shortages of nurses is a problem internationally.
Keywords
sexism, gender discrimination, nurse education
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