Health sciences students’ opinions on Turkey’s European Union membership

Abstract

Aim: This study was planned in order to determine midwifery and nursing students' overall knowledge about the European Union, their perspective about Turkey's EU membership and their professional expectations.
Methods: The study was planned as descriptive type. The data of the study were collected from 765 (81%) students studying at Ege University in the departments of midwifery and nursing between the years of 2006-2007. The data of the study were collected through a questionnaire.
Results: 41.6% of the students stated that they were all for Turkey's EU membership, a majority of them  (81.4%) stated that they had a little or little level of knowledge about the European Union, and 7.5% said that they had adequate knowledge of the EU. In the study as obstacles toward Turkey's EU membership, 21.7% of the students expressed the negative Turkish image in Europe, 15% of them underlined Turkish migration threat to the EU, 12.2% of them said that the majority of Turkish people were Muslims and there were differences in identity and culture, and Turkey's not being economically equal to the EU was stated by 10.7% of the students. 79.6% of them think that Turkish society is not informed enough about the EU. 32.8% of them replied the expression "I can freely do my job in the EU member states in the case of Turkey's membership" as "I am indecisive".
Conclusions: It has been observed that midwifery and nursing students have high expectations about free movement of services. Students had little level of knowledge about the European Union.