The implicit heteronormativity

Sammanfattning: Our society is based on a heterosexual norm. This may lead to the fact that LGBT-persons have a poorer health status than the heterosexual population. The nurse education lacks information and courses that highlights sexual identity. This is defective since healthcare staff needs knowledge on the subject to be able to treat patients in a professional and respectful manner. The purpose of this study was to illustrate how heteronormativity influences the treatment of patients within a healthcare context. This paper is a survey of literature based on 12 articles and one dissertation. The results showed that the healthcare staff and the healthcare students had both positive and negative attitudes towards non heterosexual patients. The majority had positive attitudes. It is thus important to highlight the negative attitudes and derive them to heteronormative ways in a healthcare context. The non heterosexual patients experienced problems dealing with homophobia, the issue of coming out or not and poor heteronormative communication. The healthcare staff needs to get accurate education regarding heteronormativity and sexual identities. The negative attitudes towards non heterosexual patients would thus lessen and the treatment towards these persons would improve. More research on the subject of nursing and heteronormativity is needed. Research focusing only on the nurse’s work and how it is influenced by heteronormativity is wanted.