Determination of ecological footprint and sustainable consumption behaviors of nursing students

It is of great importance for the future of today and our world that future nurses, who will be responsible for the health of individuals and the environment, change their knowledge, awareness and sustainable living skills about the environment and consumption awareness, primarily through their own behaviors, during their university education. The concept of ecological footprint, which makes environmental sustainability measurable, is an important concept in terms of making sense of the relationship between humans and nature. This study was conducted to determine the sustainable consumption behaviors and ecological footprint awareness of Balıkesir University Faculty of Health Sciences Nursing students and to evaluate them in terms of various sociodemographic variables. The population of this descriptive cross-sectional study consisted of nursing students studying at Balıkesir University Faculty of Health Sciences in the 2023-2024 academic year. 414 nursing students who agreed to participate in the study were included in the study since it was aimed to reach the entire population between 12 February- 20 May 2024. Sociodemographic questionnaire form, Sustainable Consumption Behavior Scale (SCBS) and Awareness Scale for Reducing Ecological Footprint (AASF) were used in the study. Descriptive statistics, t test / Mann Whitney U test, ANOVA (Posthoc: Bonferroni) / Kruskal Wallis test, correlation analysis were used to analyze the data. A total of 414 nursing students, including 296 females (%71.5) and 118 males (%28.5), participated in the study. The mean age of the participants was 20.97±1.71 years (min: 18, max: 28). It was determined that %35.5 of the participants were interested in the environment, %70.0 did not participate in the activities of any environmental organization, 35.5% sometimes talked about environmental issues in the family, %51.2 occasionally reacted to individuals who pollute the environment and %65.5 did not receive any training on environmental protection. Ecological footprint awareness survey score (108,84±23,75) and sustainable consumption behavior survey score (54,78±9,28) were found. The score received by women from EAİFÖ is higher than that of men (p=0,021), It was determined that 2nd year nursing students received higher scores than 3rd, 4th and 5th year students (p=0,000). It was determined that the environmental awareness (15.91±5.14) and savings score (14.26±3.63) of the second grade group from STDS were higher than the other groups. According to the correlation analysis results, a statistically significant and positive relationship (r=0.397, p<0.05) was detected between sustainable consumption behavior and ecological footprint. As a result, it has been determined that sustainable consumption behaviors have a strong effect on ecological footprint awareness. Nursing students' knowledge and skills should be improved by increasing their education on assessing environmental health risks for the individual, family and society, developing sustainable consumption behaviors and environmental health. Keywords: Awareness, ecological footprint, environmental awareness, nursing students, sustainable consumption.