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Nurses' perceptions regarding health care and the poor.

To assess hospital staff nurses' perceptions regarding the poor and their health care a total of 240 nurses were selected from 6 of 8 area hospitals to participate in the study (40 nurses from each institution). Of the 240 nurses selected, 192 nurses completed the questionnaire (80% return rate). The majority of the sample believed the poor were caught in a "cycle of poverty" (84%) which implies they believe the poor cannot help being poor. However, some of the nurses in this sample also held "victim blaming" attitudes, i.e., poor women become pregnant to collect welfare (58%), the poor live well on welfare (35%), and a person's poverty is due to advantages squandered (27%). About one-third of the nurses agreed poor patients do not receive equivalent quality of care when compared to nonpoor patients and that transferring patients to another hospital due to an inability to pay was very common. Ten percent agreed assisting the poor in becoming well was a waste of medical care as they would be back again soon with another problem. Over half the sample believed the poor were not likely to engage in preventive health behaviors (66%) nor be compliant with their medical regimens (52%). Such attitudes should be studied to see if they affect communication between the poor and their nurse caregivers.