Knowledge and Attitude of Nursing Students Regarding Organ Donation in Pokhara, Nepal

Background: Organ donation and transplantation is a boon to the medical industry as it has helped in saving the lives of critically ill patients with organ failure but the shortage of organ donors is an emerging health problem in Nepal. Improving the knowledge and attitudes of health care professionals and nurses could help to promote organ donation. The study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitude of nursing students regarding organ donation.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 126 nursing students of proficiency certificate level. Pokhara Nursing Campus was selected among the seven nursing colleges through a simple random sampling technique. All the students of the first, second and third year of selected college were enrolled in the study. A semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. The data was collected and analyzed in the Statistical Package Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16 and descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were calculated.

Result: The study showed more than half (54.8%) of nursing students had satisfactory knowledge. The mean knowledge score and standard deviation were found to be 16.54±3.17. Most (88%) of the nursing students had a positive attitude towards organ donation with a mean attitude of 41.30+ 4.05.

Conclusion: Nursing students had satisfactory knowledge and a positive attitude towards organ donation. Knowledge on organ donation should be incorporated in the school curriculum to increase knowledge level and develop attitude on donating organs.