Undergraduate nursing students’ opinions and attitudes toward organ donation: a survey in a Turkish university

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine undergraduate nursing students’ opinions and attitudes about organ donation. Three hundred and four undergraduate nursing students participated in the survey while studying at Akdeniz University in the 2008 spring semester. Although these data were collected in 2008, there is still very little literature on this topic and the need for transplant organs is as urgent now as it was at that time. The data were obtained from a questionnaire. The questionnaire results reflected that the expert opinion was consistent with Kendall’s concordance analysis. Written consent was obtained from each student. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, the chi-square test and Spearman's correlation. Among the students, 66.1% received training about organ donation, and 59.5% received this training from the Nursing School, 12.2% were organ donors, 45.3% of the family members were ambivalent about organ donation, 18.7% were willing to donate organs to save lives, and 21.2% refused to donate organs for fear of the removal of organs before one’s death in the event of an accident or serious injury. 65.8% of the students were willing to donate their organs while alive. There were significant differences between donating an organ and receiving training (p < .05). This study also analyzed income state, age and sex and found no significant difference in donating organs for each of these variables (p > .05). Nursing students’ positive thoughts about organ transplantation and donation should be promoted and relevant training and seminars, particularly about barriers to organ donation, should be increased.