Medical and Nursing undergraduate University Students’ attitudes towards Sustainable Development Goals in Babylon Governorate, Iraq

Sahar Hassan  Issa; Ahmed Faisal; Asmaa Hamza; Hasan Alwan Baiee; Mushtaq  Talib

doi:10.36321/kjns.vi20252.20527

Authors

Sahar Hassan Issa Department of Pediatric Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, University of Babylon, Babylon, Iraq. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9204-9773
Ahmed Faisal Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Hammurabi College of Medicine, University of Babylon, Babylon, Iraq
Asmaa Hamza Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Hammurabi Faculty of Medicine, University of Babylon, Babylon, Iraq
Hasan Alwan Baiee Department of Nursing, Hilla Faculty College, Babylon, Iraq.
Mushtaq Talib Department of Physiology, Hammurabi Faculty of Medicine, University of Babylon, Babylon, Iraq

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36321/kjns.vi20252.20527

Keywords:

Attitudes, Sustainable Development Goals, Medical students, Nursing students, Babylon University, Iraq.

Abstract

Background: It is essential to establish sustainability practice in the university environment, this can be evolved through raising the positive attitudes among university students especially among undergraduate health and medical sciences students for being future responsible citizens.

Objectives: To assess the attitudes of medical and nursing undergraduate university students in Babylon university, Iraq.

Methodology: This was a cross-sectional comparative study conducted on convenient samples of undergraduate nursing and medical students in Babylon university (nursing and Hammurabi medical colleges) during the period October 2024, through January 2025, data collection was done through a self-filled pre-determined and validated questionnaire adopted from other studies, this approach included the demographic characteristics and questions related to students beliefs about sustainable development goals mainly (environment, economy, society and education), differences of attitudes between the two group were assessed using t independent statistical test.

Results: Total of 302 students from both schools were enrolled in this study, males are predominant among medical students, more than half of the study sample were rural dwellers. There was a significant correlation for attitudes toward sustainable development goals (SDGs) as perceived by nursing and medical students across the four dimensions: environment, economy, society, and education. Overall, the results highlight that attitude toward SDGs are interrelated, with stronger correlations observed in the economy and society dimensions for both groups. The high mean score in the societal dimension in this study indicates that both nursing and medical students place significant importance on societal well-being and equity.

Conclusion: Both groups share a common positive attitude regarding economic dimension, nursing students had higher attitudes score in education dimension. Contents about SDGs strategy should be introduced in the college curricula, further large-scale analytic studies are strongly requested.