Journey or Destination? Evaluating Student Learning About Race, Class, and Privilege in Health Care

The purpose of this research was to use narrative analysis to study final papers in a Social and Cultural Issues in Health Care course in order to understand how to improve nursing student learning about discrimination and oppression in health care. The study addressed two questions: a) What were the dimensions of diversity in the student population, including hidden dimensions such as social class and religion? b) How effectively did students analyze and synthesize course content on race, class, and privilege through autobiographical reflection and cognitive, attitudinal and applied learning? Dimensions of diversity were identified through narrative analysis of student autobiographical information. Four levels of learning emerged from a thematic narrative analysis of how students used personal autobiographical reflection and cognitive, affective, and applied learning to analyze and synthesize course content on race, class, and privilege in health care. This study makes a unique contribution to nursing educational research by exploring the use of narrative analysis in evaluating student learning about discrimination in health care.