Determination of Awareness and Knowledge of Nursing Students About Global Warmness/Climate Change

Aim: The aim of study was to evaluate nursing students’ knowledge and awareness levels about global warmness / climate change issues and their solution suggestions. Material-methods: This descriptive epidemiologic study was carried out with 183 students (65.6%). Data was collected with data sheet included 21 questions. Data was analyzed by chisquare and t-tests via SPSS 20.0 Statistical Package Program. Results: The age of students was between 18-35 and mean age was 21. 35 ± 1. 94 years. 99.5% of students stated they heard about global warmness concepts whereas 24% stated never heard about greenhouse gas. 68.5% of students indicated carbon dioxide, 13% of them methane and 14.1% of them nitrogen as a greenhouse gas. 91.3% of students stated they heard greenhouse gases/global warmness/climate change issues from television, 79.2% from school and 69.4% from internet. 22.4% of students indicated they had courses about global warmness/climate change and all of the students stated there’s global warmness/climate change issues. 99.5% of students stated global warmness/climate will affect peoples’ health and 97.3% of them stated it will decrease the life quality in near future. 62.3% of students revealed they are scared of climate change. Students were indicated that it has effects on health, defined those problems as cancer (73%), respiratory system diseases (51.4%) and 12.2% of them stated they don’t know those effects. Conclusion: According to our results, nursing students’ global warmness/climate change knowledge and awareness were found insufficient although they were studying at university. A poster about global warmness/climate change issues was prepared for those students. Organization of new programs and activities for raising awareness about global warmness/ climate change at universities recommended.