Awareness, Knowledge, and Attitude regarding Corneal Donation among Nursing Students in the Palestinian territories رسالة ماجستير

Abstract

The cornea may be scarred through a wide range of infectious diseases, inflammatory diseases, traumatic incidents, malnutrition, congenital disorders, and failed medical interventions, all of which may ultimately lead to vision impairment and blindness. According to the World Health Organization 2010, corneal blindness is the fourth leading cause of blindness globally (5.1%), and it is considered the second cause of blindness in the developing world. Corneal transplantation is the gold standard treatment utilized to restore visual impairment when optical intervention fails, but the V worldwide ratio between demand and supply is 70:1, and only 37.5% of those who require corneal transplantation have adequate access to donated corneas. Most studies have indicated that the main reason for the large gap between corneal demand and supply is lack of awareness and sufficient knowledge about corneal donation. Objectives: To investigate the knowledge, awareness, and attitudes regarding corneal donation among nursing university students in the Palestinian Territories. Method of the study: A cross sectional study conducted among 904 undergraduates nursing students, the study involved students from five Palestinians universities, an online electronic semi-structured questionnaire was created based on the study's goals to assess awareness, knowledge, and attitudes of respondents regarding corneal donation. Results: The analysis of this study reported that the majority of the students 62.1% had low level knowledge regarding eye donation, 52.5% of respondents had awareness about corneal donation, and the main sources of information were from TV 31.97%. Only 29.6% of students had willingness to donate their cornea, the response of participants toward perceived reasons for donors willing to donate corneas the majority of them 67.3% believed that a corneal donation gives other people the gift of sight, and about Perceived reasons for donors not willing to donate their cornea corneas the majority of respondents believed that a lack of information about corneal donation process is the main reason. There were no significant differences according to gender, religion, and university level with mean of knowledge of cornea donation (P>0.05), there were no significant differences according gender, religion, and university level with mean of reason for VI unwillingness to donate the cornea (P>0.05), there was a significant difference between gender and the mean of reasons for willingness to donate the cornea (p< 0.05), However, there were no significant difference according religion and university level (P>0.05) Conclusion: The finding of our current study clarified that, the majority of nursing students lacked awareness, knowledge, and they had negative attitudes regarding corneal donation. So, nursing students need adequate level of education program that focus on corneal donation to raise the level of knowledge and awareness regarding corneal donation because these group of future health care providers in direct contact with clients and their families in hospitals and health centers, and they have the ability to positively influence and motivate them to donate organs in general and the cornea in particular.