Attitudes of midwifery and nursing students in a Turkish university toward lesbians and gay men and opinions about healthcare approaches

Lesbians and gay men are subjected to negative attitudes and poor quality health care by midwives in the process of having children and by nurses in the process of receiving general health care services. Our aim was to investigate midwifery and nursing students' attitudes towards lesbians and gay men and their opinions about health care approaches displayed towards them. The study was designed as a cross-sectional and descriptive one and conducted in one midwifery and two nursing schools in a city in Turkey and comprised 1321 students. To assess the participants' attitudes, the Attitudes toward Lesbians and Gays (ATLG) Scale was used. To assess opinions about health care approaches, the students were asked open-ended questions. All the participating students' attitude scores were below the average and they exhibited negative attitudes towards lesbians and gays. While very few of the participants had positive views about health care given to, most of them either had negative views or did not have any opinions. The midwifery students' attitudes were more positive than were those of the nursing students. Students' health care approaches towards lesbians and gay men were insufficient and negative. Educators need to develop training programs, which can help students gain cultural awareness of the health care needs of lesbians and gay men in different cultures before they graduate.