An evaluation of the environmental literacy levels of nursing students in Turkey

Abstract

The study was aimed to investigate the environmental literacy levels of the nursing students, including the dimensions of environmental knowledge, attitudes, behaviour, and perceptions. It was a descriptive and crosssectional study, including 292 nursing students who had accepted participation in the study. Data were collected in the fall term of the 2019-2020 academic year using the Sociodemographic Characteristics Form and the Environmental Literacy Scale. According to the results, nursing students’ sub-dimension scores were 12.23±2.96 for environmental knowledge, 66.11±12.25 for environmental attitude, 41.22±6.38 for environmental behaviour, and 10.26±2.08 for environmental perception. The environmental literacy levels of nursing students are at a moderate level. The study found a statistically significant difference between class level, age, gender, father educational status, talking about environmental issues in the family, environmental education status, being involved in the environmental project, source of environmental information, membership of the environmental organizations, and the mean score of the scale (p < 0.05). As a result, it is suggested to plan interventional studies with larger samples to improve the environmental literacy levels of nursing students and to make necessary regulations in the course contents.