Undergraduate nursing students' attitudes towards organ donation: a survey in an Italian university

To examine undergraduate nursing students' attitudes towards organ donation and to determine whether or not attitudes were related to the students' education and training.

Nurses' knowledge and personal opinion can influence patient's willingness to donate organs or to hold an organ donor card. It is unclear how Italy's future nurses view organ donation.

The study's source population consisted of third-year undergraduate nursing students enrolled in seven nursing schools from an Italian university during 2008. Respondents completed self-administered quantitative questionnaire with 61 questions, including the Organ Donation Attitude Scale.

Of the 378 students contacted, 183 (48%) completed all survey questions; 140 were females (76.5%) and the mean age of students was 25. The median score of students' attitude scores towards organ donation was 151 (the attitude is positive when the score is higher than 161). No significant correlations were found to exist between organ-donation attitude and sex, age, clinical practice in hospitals with a transplant unit, nursing care to patients waiting for a transplant or dialysis patients. Only 16% of the students had previously signed a donor card consenting to their own organ donation. The study revealed that doubts about transplantable organs still exist within the student body.

This study highlighted that students' awareness of organ donation was not adequate and that attitude levels were lower than in other countries. If these future workers would receive adequate training, they could promote organ donation to the general public and to other hospital personnel.