Awareness of Healthcare Professionals on Climate Change. Knowledge, Attitudes, and Opinions of Nursing Staff in Greece

Climate change and its impacts are becoming even more evident at the environmental, social, health, and economic levels. Attitudes are stable perceptions that guide people's reactions to the various phenomena of their social environment. The main purpose of the study is to record the knowledge, attitudes, and opinions of nurses regarding the changes and effects of climate change and to raise awareness on environmental protection issues. The sample consisted of nursing staff of hospitals in Greece. For the study, a self-completed questionnaire constructed which included 6 thematic sections and a total of 42 questions following the Likert scale. Due to the large number of nursing staff, availability sampling was chosen to explore the knowledge, attitudes, and opinions of the sample. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed to present the sample responses. All questions of the questionnaire presented good reliability according to Cronbach's a analysis (>0.8). Most of the sample was female (68.9%), the mean age was 41.4 ± 7.2 years. The majority (52.8%) were Registered Nurses, the average length of service was 16.1 years, and they worked at 2 psychiatric hospitals in Athens. 71.5% declared climate change as a very important problem and 58.9% consider the contribution of individuals through the reduction of energy consumption in solving environmental problems. In the present study, participants were sufficiently informed regarding environmental issues, and its effects on the physical and mental health. In addition, they seem to be particularly aware of actions on environmental issues and willing to participate in them for further education.