Viewpoints of the teachers and students about organ donation in a high school in Istanbul

Abstract

Viewpoints of the teachers and students about organ donation in a high school in Istanbul

Turkey is a developing country with a serious organ shortage problem and because of this problem country needs more study for describing viewpoints of different sections of society related to organ donation. This study was performed in Istanbul to define the viewpoints of the teachers and students about organ donation in a high school.

Material and Methods

The high school was selected randomly in European side of Istanbul. After taking permission from the school administration and the provincial directorate of national education, questionnaires which have 27 questions were distributed to all of the senior students and the teachers of the school. Totally 92.3 % of the students (n:251) and 53.9 % of the teachers (n:28) filled the questionnaires. Data were analyzed in SPSS 15.0.

Results

It was found that none of the students and teachers had organ donation card. According to the teachers’ viewpoints, 60.7 % (n:17) want to donate their own organs, the percentage was found 72.9 % (n:183)in the students for the same question. According to the teachers’ viewpoints only 35.7 % (n:10) want to donate their relatives’ organs ; this percentage was also find as 44.6 % (112)in the students.

There were no significant differences between the viewpoints of the teachers and students according to their genders and age groups.

Discussion

According to these results, it can be claimed teachers don’t have enough information about donation and it is so important to develop some education programs for the teachers. Students’ viewpoints about organ donation were found more positive than their teachers.