Nursing students' conceptualization of environmental problems: a descriptive cross-sectional study

Background: The significant challenges of the twenty-first century revolve around environmental issues. Knowing individuals' environmental attitudes and what they see as environmental problems is crucial to mobilizing them to action. Nurses hold a significant responsibility in addressing and combating environmental challenges. Research aim: This study had two objectives: understanding how nursing students classify environmental issues and examining the effects of gender, economic status, school district, family environmental awareness, and perception of global responsibility on their conceptualization of environmental issues. Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study using a questionnaire. Setting and participants: The sample consisted of 1466 nursing students from four faculties of two public universities in Turkiye. The study was conducted between January and April 2023. Methods: Data were collected using a form that included 19 issues ranging from ecological problems to social problems related to the environment, as well as the Global Social Responsibility Scale (GSRS). The data were analyzed using explanatory factor analysis, multiple regression, and mediator analysis. Results: Participants classified the environmental issues as eco-social-oriented and human-oriented. First-year students (B = -0.201), male students (B = -0.263), those studying in rural schools (B = -0.123), and those who rarely discuss environmental issues in the family (B = -0.197) describe the problems in the eco-social oriented dimension as less “environmental.” The increase in the action-oriented responsibility (B = 0.014) and ecological responsibility (B = 0.077) scores of The Global Social Responsibility Scale leads to an increase in recognizing the problems in this area as environmental issues. Similarly, first-year students (B = -0.340), male students (B = -0.293), and those who rarely discussed environmental issues in the family (B = -0.243) led to a decrease in recognizing problems as environmental in the human-oriented issues dimension. In contrast, poor socioeconomic perception (B = 0.245), negative perception of the future (B = 0.145), and increased action-oriented responsibility (B = 0.024) and ecological responsibility (B = 0.042) led to an increase in recognition of human-oriented issues. The increase in the national responsibility score decreased the score of environmental assessment of the problems in this area (B = -0.017). In addition, the perception of global responsibility partially mediates between students' sociodemographic characteristics and environmental issues recognition scores in both sub-dimensions. Conclusion: This study presents results that point to individual differences among nursing students in addressing environmental issues, reveal the impact of family on these differences, and finally show the importance of curricula to increase students' global social responsibility during their education.