Nursing students' attitudes towards climate change and sustainability: A cross-sectional multisite study

This article was just released for online, open access:

Álvarez-Nieto, C. et al. 2021. Nursing students' attitudes towards climate change and sustainability: a cross-sectional multisite study. Nursing Education Today. In press. 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0260691721004421

This study aimed to: i) investigate nursing students' attitudes towards and awareness of climate change and sustainability issues and its inclusion in nurse education, ii) explore differences across a range of countries, and iii) compare attitudes in 2019 with those of a similar sample in 2014.

The survey included 846 first-year nursing students from 7 universities in 5 countries (UK, Spain, Germany, Sweden, and Australia). 

Conclusion:  "Nursing students have increasingly positive attitudes towards the inclusion of sustainability and climate change in their nursing curriculum. They also recognise the importance of education regarding sustainability and the impact of climate change on health, supporting formal preparation for environmental literacy. It is time to act on this positive trend in nursing students' attitudes by integrating these competencies into nursing curricula"

This reference will be useful for any nursing educators looking for a reference to justify introducing/increasing teaching about sustainability and climate change in nursing courses.

A further publication of qualitative information from the open-ended survey questions will be published soon as well.