UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION IN CLINICAL NURSING Evaluation of nursing and medical students’ attitudes towards people with disabilities Hatice Sahin and Asiye D Akyol Aims and objectives. The aim of this study is to assess the attitudes of students towards disabled people and provide suggestions to make necessary changes in the curricula. Background. Disabled people suffer from rejection, exclusion and discrimination. The undergraduate education of future health professionals should include processes of critical thinking towards and analysis of the disabled. Design. Cross-sectional design was used. Methods. All the preclinical medical and nursing students in our institution were included in study. Data were collected using the Turkish Attitudes towards Disabled Person Scale (TATDP) and demographical variables. TATDP Scale was scored according to five-point Likert Scale. Results. Students’ mean attitude score is 120Æ57 (SD 15Æ24). Subscale mean scores are 53Æ61 (SD 7Æ25) for compassion (CP), 50Æ47 (SDS 7Æ26) for social value (SV) and 16Æ49 (SD 2Æ89) for resource distribution (RD). Whilst nursing students had less contact with the disabled, medical students had a closer contact with them. Medical students acquired more prior knowledge about attitudes towards the disabled. Total attitude scores of female students were above the students’ mean attitude score when compared to those of male students. Conclusion. Only if early contact is established with patients and the disabled, practical educational strategies are adopted, and the students are provided with information on attitudes about the disabled, will a social model of disability be introduced into the curriculum. Relevance to clinical practice. This study results were presented to curriculum planning committees of nursing and medical schools, so that they should use them as needs assessment data in developing a disability awareness curriculum. The curriculum will be implemented in cooperation with not only schools but also other social institutions. For instance, clerkship applications will be accomplished by cooperating with nursing homes and organisations of disabled people. Key words: attitudes, curriculum planning, disability, education programme, nursing students, students Accepted for publication: 7 July 2009 Introduction The phenomenon of disability in a society is as old as the history of humanity. Wars, terrorist attacks, natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires, floods and collapsing buildings, accidents, poisoning incidents, house fires, drug addiction as well as other factors imposed by modern life style are known to cause a rapid increase in the number of disabled people especially in developing countries. In countries where poor health conditions prevail, disabilities stemming from prenatal and postnatal problems can also be added to this long list, making the issue of disability extremely important (Scullion 1999a, Bilge et al. 2005, Seccombe 2007a,b). Although the World Health Organization (WHO) had formerly defined Authors: Hatice Sahin, Associate Professor, Ege University, School of Medicine, Department of Medical Education, Bornova-Izmir; Asiye Durmaz Akyol, Associate Professor, Ege University, School of Nursing, Department of Internal Medicine Nursing, Bornova-Izmir, Turkey Correspondence: Hatice Sahin, Associate Professor, Ege University, School of Medicine, Department of Medical Education, Bornova- Izmir, Turkey 35100. Telephone: +90 232 390 1844. E-mail: hatice.sahin@ege.edu.tr Ó 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation Ó 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Journal of Clinical Nursing, 19, 2271–2279 2271 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2009.03088.x