Do nursing students’ altruism levels affect their attitudes toward medical errors? A cross-sectional study

The aim of the current research is to determine nursing students' levels of altruism, attitudes towards medical errors and the effect of altruism on attitudes towards medical errors. Nursing students should be aware of medical errors and have an attitude towards correcting them. Professional values play an essential role in changing, shaping and developing attitudes in nursing students. Altruism is one of the most important determining professional values in students' professional success and development of attitudes towards different situations. This study is a descriptive and cross-sectional study. The research was conducted in the Nursing Department of a state university in Turkey and the study population consisted of 2nd, 3rd and 4th year nursing students (N=375) who were continuing their education and clinical practice in the spring semester of the 2022–2023 academic year. The study was completed with 321 students. The data were collected online using the information form, the Altruism Scale and the Scale of Attitudes Towards Medical Errors via Google Forms between 01 and 31 May 2023. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Independent-Samples t-test, One-Way ANOVA test, Pearson's correlation analysis and simple linear regression. Students had a mean score of 69.68 (range 40–98) on the Altruism Scale and 3.82 (range 2.38–4.56) on the Scale of Attitudes Towards Medical Errors. A significant, very weak positive correlation was found between the Altruism Scale and the total mean scores of the Attitudes Towards Medical Errors Scale (p=0.001). Altruism was found to have a significant effect on attitude towards medical errors (p=0.001). The explanatory power of the regression model was 0.101 and altruism explained 10.1 % of the students' attitudes towards medical errors scores. Students have positive attitudes towards medical errors, high awareness of the importance of medical errors and error reporting and above average levels of altruism. Altruism has a positive effect on attitudes towards medical errors.