Carolyn Stewart
Innovative Study on Attitudes
Wintec Nursing Educator Carolyn Stewart has made an exciting new contribution to nursing's body of knowledge with her innovative research on nursing students' attitudes toward people with intellectual disabilities (ID) who criminally offend.
'When I discuss my research, people's reaction is usually "that's interesting" and then they move on to something else! However, once I explain that nursing student's attitudes to intellectual disability (particularly forensic ID) has not specifically been taught in current nursing curricular, they are more interested,' says Carolyn.
The research is vitally important because it extends the body of knowledge relating to attitudes towards people with an ID as well as people with an ID who have broken the law. Before legislation changed in 2007, these people were placed in prison as they came within the framework of the judicial system. The change in legislation has allowed people with an ID who offend to be placed in a secure forensic ID unit, such as the Mason Clinic, which enables them to received specific treatment.
This has been a collaborative research project with Waitemata District Health Board's Mason Clinic. It seeks to determine: the attitudes of nursing students to people with an ID in NZ; the attitudes of nursing students to people with an ID who offend in NZ; the possibilities of using an online format to survey these attitudes; and the reliability and validity of the Mason ID attitudinal survey.
Data was collected using online self report questionnaires and 110 students enrolled in the Bachelor of Nursing programme at Wintec voluntarily took part.
The participants completed a demographic questionnaire, two measures of attitudes towards people with an ID and a social desirability scale. Carolyn said the MOODLE questionnaire was very successful: "I had 110 responses, which is awesome for an online questionnaire…especially one so big!"
The research has already been accepted for presentation to an international nurse education conference to be held in Dublin, Ireland later this year. Mrs Stewart hopes to discuss ways to include ID in curricular and compare any other research of this type, particularly the methodology of the online questionnaire, with delegates from around the world.
As well as the international conference, Mrs Stewart hopes her research will benefit nursing schools in New Zealand, practitioners and ultimately people with an intellectual disability. She will also be submitting an abstract for publication in June, in Nurse Education Today, an international nursing journal.