DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i07.012

Pages: 2545-2551

Corneal transplantation is the most successful organ donation. It is the only treatment option available for corneal blind people. In India, the number of corneal transplants done is far less than the requirement. Medical and nursing students can influence the society and their relatives to pledge for their eyes. With this view, the present work was undertaken to assess the knowledge, attitude and willingness of medical and nursing students towards eye donation in a Government Medical College and Hospital in Odisha. 262 students which included 133 medical and129 nursing were administered with a pretested semi structured questionnaire. From the collected data, it was observed that the majority 225(85.9%) students knew that eyes can be donated after death, 208 (79.3%) knew the ideal time for eye donation was within 6 hours of death. 155(59.1%) participants opined that the corneal retrieval time from donor was just 30-45 minutes. 169(64.5%) students were willing to pledge for eye donation, among them restoration of vision in a blind person was the motivation to pledge in 86(50.8%) and in 83 (49.1%) nobility in the act. 93 (35.4%) students were not willing to pledge, the perceived reasons for unwillingness were, 60 (64.5%) students need more information, 29(31.1%) fear objection by family members and in 4(4.3%) religious disbelieves. This study revealed that medical and nursing students were well aware about eye donation and many of them were inclined to pledge for eye donation, so could be actively involved as volunteers in eye donation campaigns and act as grief counsellors in hospital to motivate the relatives of the gravely ill patients for eye donation.