의학, 간호학 전공 대학생의 줄기세포에 대한 지식 및 태도 조사*

This article reports on a study designed to assess the knowledge and attitudes about stem cell technology among nursing and medical students. The subjects consisted of 272 nursing students and 211 medical students. The instrument used was a self-reporting Likert-type questionnaire consisting of 57 assumptions related to stem cell technology. With respect to the level of stem cell knowledge, the score for all subjects was 54.7±20.3; the medical students’ score (59.1±15.5) was higher than that of nursing students (51.3±21.0) (p=.00). Attitudes toward stem cell technology varied according to individual topics. With respect to attitudes toward embryonic stem cells, the score for nursing students (3.28±0.47) was higher than that for medical students (3.18±0.51) (p=.02). The results of this study also show that knowledge about stem cell technology varies according to gender and experience with stem cell education, while attitudes toward stem cell technology vary according to religious convictions and beliefs about the intentions of ovum donation. Based on these results, we argue that there is a need for bioethics education programs that can raise the knowledge and attitudes about stem cell technology among nursing and medical students.