Knowledge and attitudes of medical, nursing, dentistry and health technician students towards organ donation: a pilot study.
OBJECTIVE
This pilot study assesses the knowledge and attitudes of medicine, nursing, dentistry and health technical students toward organ donation.


BACKGROUND
Medicine, nursing, dentistry and health technical students' knowledge of and attitudes towards organ donation may be a factor in organ procurement rates. There is a lack of information about how Turkish medicine, nursing, dentistry and health technical students perceive organ donation, and what they know about it.


METHODS
Students completed a self-administered questionnaire after a lecture. The questionnaire included a test that was used to assess knowledge of and attitudes about organ donation.


RESULTS
Of the students, 56.8% were men, 91.4% were 18-24-year old and 89.4% from east region of Turkey. Of students, 65.5% were willing, 9% were not willing, 25.5% were hesitant about organ donation and 6% of willing students reported carrying a signed card. The most common reason for unwillingness to organ donation was worries about illegal behaviours (2.4%). There was a statistical relationship between willingness of students for organ donation and gender but were not any statistical relationship between willingness of students for organ donation and age, school, region and recognizing relatives whose need organ transplantation. Majority of the students listed transplantable organs truly but 63.1% were had no idea about organ donation process.


CONCLUSIONS
Students' had a lack of information about organ donation. The results of this study support a greater emphasis on providing information regarding transplantation in medicine, nursing, dentistry and health technical schools to improve the knowledge of future heath care professionals about transplantation and organ donation issues.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings highlight a need to review these schools' curricula and emphasize the importance of organ transplantation. This strategy may be part of the solution to the chronic shortage of donor organs for transplantation.
Goz
Fugen
F
Dicle Universitesi, Diyarbakir Atatürk Sağlik Yüksek Okulu, Diyarbakir, Turkey. fugengoz@dicle.edu.tr
Goz
Mustafa
M
Erkan
Medine
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013335:Students, Dental / Q000523:psychology*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement