Social justice attitudes of undergraduate nursing students: The impact of praxis

Background: Social justice is a foundational concept in nursing, yet studies on how best to impact change in nursing students’ attitudes toward social justice are few. Objectives: The intent of this work was to quantify the impact on attitudes of undergraduate nursing students toward social justice, after extended interactions with adults living in poverty. Methods: Undergraduate nursing students from three programs, university medical center, private university, and community college were given a validated survey of social justice attitudes before and after a clinical rotation with low-income adults in an inner-city neighborhood. All students did home social visits through the same social service agency. Students from the medical center were also involved with active care coordination for assigned clients. Results: Each group showed significant increases in social justice attitudes following their experience. Students doing care coordination did not have significantly greater changes in overall scores but did show significant improvement in subtests others did not. Conclusion: Clinical opportunities placing nursing students in direct interaction with marginalized populations are recommended to increase social justice awareness.