Abstract

ABSTRACT

There is growing evidence that healthcare workers do not provide equivalent levels of care to patients of different social groups. This group includes the population of people experiencing homelessness and the number continues to grow simultaneously across U.S. Studies have also shown that the poor and the marginalized experiences disappointment in the healthcare industry due to negative attitudes such as stereotyping, bias, and prejudice from healthcare providers limiting them from accessing care when necessary. With growing research on the influence of the experience of trauma among people experiencing homelessness, there is a lack of trauma-informed services as it relates to homeless persons’ care needs. This study explored the bias of nurses in the UNMH residency program toward people experiencing homelessness and their level of knowledge of TIC. The quality improvement project used a one-group pretest and post-test with purposeful sampling. There was a pretest followed by an education intervention on TIC and a post-test for the same recruited volunteers using an electronic survey. The survey instrument assessed nurses’ knowledge of TIC and the level of bias toward people experiencing homelessness. The target population was nurses in the residency program at the University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH). Most of the nurses in the residency program showed a medium level of bias toward people experiencing homelessness and a gap identified in their knowledge, attitude, and practice of TIC but the TIC training of the nurses influenced their level of bias towards people experiencing homelessness even though there was no significant relationship between the level of bias before and after the TIC intervention. There is a bias of nurses toward people experiencing homelessness and some gap in knowledge of TIC, but TIC intervention influenced the level of bias and increased knowledge of TIC.

Keywords: Trauma-informed care, bias, negative attitude.

Language

English

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

First Committee Member

DR. HEIDI ROGERS

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