Are Nurses Homophobic? A Survey Study in Public Hospitals in Turkey

Abstract

Purpose Studies conducted with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people in Turkey have found that such people experience social isolation, neglect, insufficient healthcare services, and disrespect. However, no study has been reported related to clinicians' approaches and attitudes towards them. This study aimed to determine the attitudes of nurses towards homosexual individuals and the factors associated with the homophobia levels of nurses. Design This was a descriptive, cross‐sectional survey study. Methods The study was conducted with 449 participants in four hospitals. Nurses who had been working for at least 1 year in the hospitals were included in the sample of the study. The data were collected by using a two‐part survey form. The first part was an information form regarding the participants’ socio‐demographic and professional characteristics, and the second part was the Hudson and Ricketts Homophobia Scale. The data were analyzed using numbers, percentages, means, Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency analysis, parametric tests (t test and analysis of variance), nonparametric tests (Mann‐Whitney U and Kruskal‐Wallis) and multiple linear regression. Findings The study found that most of the Turkish nurses were not professionally homophobic. However, their personal homophobia scores were high. Their attitudes towards homosexuals varied by factors such as education level, acquaintance with LGBTI people, level of acquaintance, and locations of the hospitals. Conclusions Nurses who work in public hospitals stated that they would provide care for LGBTI people. However, their Homophobia Scale scores were over the mid‐point. Subjects related to the health needs of LGBTI people should be included in the curricula of nursing departments and in in‐service training at health service institutions. Clinical Relevance LGBTI individuals have complained about the reaching out health care services and negative attitudes of health care professionals towards them. Findings of this study provides important data to understand the homophobia level and reasons of nurses to develop in‐service education and training programs for coping and changing their negative attitudes.

A discriminational attitude and behavior in the healthcare field: Homophobia level in healthcare professionals working in primary health services and the affecting factors

“…In the present study, having LGBTI acquaintances improved the homophobia levels of healthcare professionals, and accordingly, such participants had a lower level of homophobia. These results are consistent with those of the relevant literature (Çakır & Seren, 2020;Oktay et al, 2021;Saraç, 2015;Taşkın et al, 2020;Uysal et al, 2020). A study conducted by Taşkın et al (2020) on nursing students found that individuals with an LGBTI friend had a lower level of homophobia.…”

“…Kwak and Kim (2019) reported in a study on nursing students in Korea that individuals without an LGBTI acquaintance were more likely to be homophobic. Çakır and Seren (2020) suggested that the level of homophobia in individuals with an LGBTI acquaintance was lower than that in individuals who did not have an LGBTI acquaintance. Based on the above results, establishing positive social relationships and meeting LGBTI individuals were associated with positive feelings, attitudes, and behaviors toward them and might contribute to changing negative approaches.…”

“…Kwak and Kim (2019) reported in a study on nursing students in Korea that individuals without an LGBTI acquaintance were more likely to be homophobic. Çakır and Seren (2020) suggested that the level of homophobia in individuals with an LGBTI acquaintance was lower than that in individuals who did not have an…”

Under the same rainbow: A study on homophobia and discrimination among private sector health care professionals

“…This form consisted of 13 questions, four open‐ended and nine closed‐ended, about the participants’ age, gender, education level, profession, institution, work unit, position, years of experience in the profession, institution and unit, their willingness to provide health care to LGBTQ+ people, and reasons for doing or not doing so. The researchers created the form based on the questions asked in relevant recent LGBT studies published in international journals (Çakır & Harmancı Seren, 2020; Tuna, 2019).…”

Determining the Attitudes of Medicine Faculty Instructors Toward LGBT Individuals

“…Although we found no studies focusing on homophobia among medical faculty, our results were congruent with various studies in many societies, which reveal moderate homophobia. [9][10][11][12] The striking result was that homophobia scores of faculties of medical school, who are the trainers of future physicians, are no lower than general population. Furthermore, results demonstrated in Table 1 show that more than half the faculty have some homophobic attitudes regarding most of the items on HRH.…”