The Role of Knowledge on Nursing Students' Attitudes toward Organ Donation: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Nursing students constitute the future nursing workforce; their knowledge can readily influence potential donors' decisions on organ donation. This study aimed to assess nursing students' knowledge of organ donation, determine its impact on their attitude, and identify relevant factors.

Methods: A cross-sectional comparative study assessed the level of knowledge and attitude toward organ donation among nursing students using the following two questionnaires: (1) knowledge about organ donation and (2) attitudes toward posthumous organ donation. Non-probability convenience sampling was employed to collect data.

Results: A total of 278 nursing students demonstrated a low level of knowledge on organ donation, with a score of 6.43 out of 15. This influenced their attitude toward organ donation (χ² (3) = 33.91, p < 0.001). Nursing students who were willing to donate their organs showed higher knowledge (7.33 ± 3.23) compared to those who were not willing to donate their organs (5.21 ± 3.09), p < 0.001. Registered donors had higher knowledge (8.52 ± 2.99) than non-donors (5.80 ± 3.17), p < 0.001.

Conclusions: Even though nursing students typically favor organ donation, findings have revealed a low knowledge score. Therefore, it is necessary to improve knowledge of organ donation through nursing curricula and research, which could potentially increase the number of donors among future nursing students and, by extension, the broader population.

Keywords: attitude; knowledge; nursing education; nursing students; organ donation; organ transplant.

Figure 1

Group comparisons on overall knowledge, favorable attitude, unfavorable attitude, and distrust scores among nursing students who were willing to donate their organs and those who were not (a); nursing students who registered to donate their organs and those who did not (b); nursing students who received gold (agreed to donate all organs), silver (indicate accepting to donate two or more organs), bronze (awarded to donors of one organ), or no donation medal (c); nursing students at the first, second, third, fourth and fifth academic level (d); nursing students with excellent, very good, good and acceptable academic performance (e); and nursing students with a high, moderate, low and poor level of knowledge on organ donation (f). Bars represent the mean ± SD. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.005, *** p < 0.001.