Tıp Fakültesi Öğrencilerinin Zenofobi Düzeyleri ve İlişkili Faktörlerin Saptanması

Abstract

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), xenophobia is defined as attitudes, prejudices, and behaviors that tend to reject, exclude, and often vilify people who are not considered to be part of the community or national identity. This desciptive study aims to examine the levels of xenophobia and related factors among first-year students of Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine. It was aimed to reach the population (228) and 205 (89.91%) students were reached. Students answered the introductory information form created by the researcher with Bozdağ and Kocatürk's (2017) Zenophobia Scale under observation. The scale consists of fear, hatred and humiliation sub-dimensions. The minimum score is 18 and the maximum score is 90, and as the score increases, the level of xenophobia increases. The overall mean score of the Zenophobia Scale of the students participating in the study was calculated as 60.49 ± 13.89. Among the sub-dimensions of the scale, the score of fear (25.28 ± 4.72) is higher than the scores of hate (21.43 ± 5.97) and humiliation (13.78 ± 4.26). The xenophobia score of male students (63.18 ± 13.84) was significantly higher than that of female students (58.58 ± 14.01) (p=0.019). The score of students living in the Southeastern Anatolia Region (47.28 ± 14.97) was found to be lower than in other regions (p=0.001). The score of those who did not communicate with refugees (63.96 ± 14.28) was significantly higher than those who communicated (55.93 ± 13.64) (p=0.016), and similarly, the score of those who had negative experiences with refugees (66.51 ± 12.27) was higher than those who did not (57.63 ± 13.74) (p=0.00). The score of those who experienced discrimination (56.28 ± 15.58) was lower than those who did not experience discrimination (63.04 ± 13.29) (p=0.007). The score of those who wanted to take a course on immigrant health (54.88 ± 12.32) was significantly lower than those who did not (67.25 ± 12.66) (p=0.000). The score of students who would not want to provide care to refugees if they had the right to choose (74.32 ± 8.04) was higher than the other groups (p=0.000). It is suggested that medical education curricula incorporate interactive courses from the first year, designed to provide knowledge, foster empathy, and address concerns related to fear, hatret and humuliation of migrants. Such courses, combined with opportunities for quality interactions with migrants, including internships, could help students combat negative biases and improve the quality and equity of services provided to service users.