KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES OF HEALTH DISCIPLINE STUDENTS TOWARD FAMILY PLANNING

Problem statement: Knowledge and attitudes of health discipline students to provide family planning (FP) service are of importance in terms of raising awareness about increasing quality health services and developing new strategies in education curricula. This study aims to determine the knowledge and attitudes of health discipline students toward family planning.

Methods: Descriptive and cross-sectional this study was conducted with 3096 students who were enrolled in the nursing department, midwifery department, and medical faculty. Data were collected through the Student Information Form, FP Knowledge Form, and Family Planning Attitudes Scale (FPAS).

Results: FP attitudes of nursing, midwifery and medical students were found to be similar (p>0.05). Midwifery students’ FPAS attitudes toward family planning methods scores were found to be significantly higher (p<0.05). Health discipline students’ FPAS scores were found to be significantly higher in students who were aged ≥22, were females, graduated from high school, were enrolled in ≥4th year, considered their income level equal to expenses or more than expenses, lived in the Mediterranean region, had nuclear family, and used a family planning method in their sexual life (p<0.05). The majority of the nursing, midwifery, and medical students were found to obtain information about FP from the school curriculum (66.5%, 72.1%, and 80.0%, respectively). Only two in every 5 students were found to know 11-15 modern family methods and emergency contraception as an FP method.

Conclusion: This study found that all participating students had low levels of FP knowledge. Students’ attitudes toward FP were positive but needed to be improved. Besides, attitudes of midwifery students toward FP methods were found higher. Results of this study, it could be beneficial to investigate variables affecting health discipline students’ attitudes toward FP according to the departments they were enrolled in and to determine strategies that can be applied to the development of students’ FP attitudes.