Prejudices of Nurses Towards Roma as Patients in the Healthcare System of the Republic of Croatia

Due to deeply rooted prejudices, the Roma are the most vulnerable and multiply discriminated ethnic group and national minority, facing discriminatory challenges in various spheres of society, including our healthcare system. These challenges limit the quality of healthcare, potentially increasing the risk of disease progression and premature death. The study aimed to analyze the prejudices of nurses and medical technicians towards members of the Roma national minority and to assess their correlation with certain socio-demographic characteristics and beliefs of the respondents.The study included 536 nurses employed in the healthcare system across all three levels, working directly with patients. Based on the opinions collected on 29 provided statements about the status and treatment of Roma as patients, 19 statements were isolated through exploratory factor analysis and classified into four detected and interpretable reliable factors. These factors were named: “Roma within the healthcare system”, “Protecting Roma from the consequences of discrimination”, “General prejudices against Roma”, and “Attitudes of nurses and medical technicians towards Roma patients”, which together explain 60.7% of the total variance.The analysis showed that some nurses share the same general prejudices towards Roma as the general population. Respondents with a higher level of education, older age, and those living in the Međimurje County and Northern Croatia expressed statistically significantly more negative attitudes toward Roma than younger, less educated individuals and those living in other parts of Croatia. Additionally, belong-ing to the majority population resulted in more negative attitudes towards Roma compared to respondents from national minorities.Respondents who had personal and professional contact with Roma on some factors exhibited less negative attitudes than those who had no such contact. Respondents from the right-wing political spectrum expressed more negative attitudes towards Roma, while religiosity did not show statistical significance.