Using Film to Understand Nursing Students’ Perception for the Care of the LGBTQ+ Patient

Abstract

Developing teaching strategies to best prepare nursing students for practice is a priority for nurse educators. The literature supports that inclusion of best practices for care of LGBTQ+ persons is important for nursing curriculums to include. This research investigates the impact of integrating film into the nursing education curriculum, to enhance nursing students' perceptions of LGBTQ+ patient care. This study, involving 29 prelicensure BSN students, utilized qualitative focus groups to explore perceptions post-viewing of the documentary “You Belong Here". The documentary explores stories of nearly 27 different LGBTQ+ persons and allies who grew up in the rural south near where these students are in nursing school. First and second-cycle coding and thematic analysis were used to analyze focus group data with identified themes of “Nurse as Advocate”, “Enhanced Holistic View”, and “Internalizing Values”. The findings of this study highlight the usefulness of film integration in nursing education as one way to increase student preparation to care for the LGBTQ+ population and may particularly impact the affective domain of learning. The study contributes valuable insights into a teaching pedagogy to build competencies for prelicensure nursing students to learn to best provide care for the LGBTQ+ population.