The impact of surgical nurses' perceptions of discrimination on their caregiving roles

This study aimed to examine the impact of surgical nurses' perceptions of discrimination on their caregiving roles. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 290 nurses working in a public hospital in Istanbul. Data were collected using the "Nurse Information Form", the "Nurses' Perceptions of Discrimination Scale (NPDS)" and the "Attitude Scale for Nurses in Caregiving Roles (ASNCR)". Descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha coefficient for internal consistency, and tests for differences between scale variables and demographic variables (one-way analysis of variance and independent sample t-tests) were analyzed using SPSS 26.0. The Post Hoc Tukey test was applied to identify group differences. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to assess relationships between scale variables, and the AMOS 24 software was used for Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to assess the effect of discrimination on nurses' caregiving attitudes. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05, with a 95% confidence interval. The results showed that the mean scores for surgical nurses' general perception of discrimination (126.56±22.73) and caregiving roles (70.64±7.62) were both high. Pearson's correlation revealed a moderately significant positive relationship between nurses' perceptions of discrimination (r: ,521) and their caregiving roles. The SEM analysis indicated that the perceptions of discrimination had a significant positive effect on the caregiving roles (β = 0.561), with a variance (R²) of 0.314. This suggests that an increase in nurses' perception of discrimination is associated with a corresponding increase in their attitudes toward caregiving role.