Nursing students’ experiences of educational discrimination: a qualitative study

Abstract

Background: Although the need for justice and the elimination of injustice (or discrimination) is now a universally accepted principle, discrimination is still an unpleasant experience for many nursing students. This study aimed to explain the experiences of nursing students of educational discrimination and find out the main factors that cause this feeling. Methods: This is a qualitative study conducted in the nursing faculty of Shahr-e-Kord and the Iran university of medical science (IUMS) in Iran. Twelve nursing students were selected by purposeful sampling method and data were collected through face-to-face and in-depth interviews with semi-structured questions. All interviews were analyzed according to the content analysis method. Results: Three main themes and ten subcategories appeared. Extracted themes include: "inappropriate behavior of nursing professors (or instructors) " with 3 subcategories (1- discriminatory behavior by nursing professors (or instructors), 2- lack of sufficient self-confidence in nursing professors and transferring it to the student, and 3- the educator role in motivating or eliminating motivation); "Strict rules" with 3 subcategories (1- inequality in implementation of rights and rules among students of different disciplines, 2- differences in compliance with laws and regulations, and 3- nurses are being strictly monitored), and " Lack of nursing professional independence " with 4 subcategories (1- lack of authority, 2- lack of supportive organizations for nurses, 3- lack of proper social status of nursing in society, and 4- the high authority and power of physicians over other disciplines). Conclusions: In our study, it was shown that nursing students feel the most discrimination in front of medical students. Feelings of discrimination reduce self-confidence in nursing students. Therefore, nursing educators and professors must think of a solution, or at least they should not cause this feeling in them through inappropriate behavior and discriminatory speech and words.