Cosmetic surgery in the perception and acceptance of nursing students

Introduction
The purpose of this study is to assess the perception and acceptance of nursing students regarding cosmetic surgery.

Material and methods
The study had two questionnaires. The first focused on demographic information and assessment of the students’ knowledge on cosmetic surgery. The second questionnaire was the Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery, which was used to determine the acceptance of nursing students to cosmetic surgery. The descriptive study was carried out at a University, Faculty of Nursing and Health Science Graduate School Master and Doctorate Nursing Programs (n = 230). Data were collected by using questionnaires that were available online and completed electronically. Participants accessed the link of the questionnaires through social media platform. Participants who accessed the link did so voluntarily and were aware that the information given would be treated as confidential and anonymous.

Results
The average age of the participants was 25.32 ±3.74 years. The overall acceptance level of cosmetic surgery was 71.29 ±21.67, which is moderate. Among characteristics that might affect the acceptance level of nursing students to cosmetic surgery, a statistically significant difference was found in having a relative who had had cosmetic surgery, age, and academic year (p < 0.05).

Conclusions
It is important to institute programs to educate these future health care providers about cosmetic surgery and the associated risk and complications, which will concurrently increase their acceptance of cosmetic surgery.