Assessment of College of Nursing Students' Knowledge about Autism Disorder

Background and aim: Knowledge and awareness about childhood autism is something essential for students at college of nursing. Nursing staff based on the provision of health care for children with autism should have knowledge of the way autistic people see the world and therefore have the ability to understand and provide therapeutic assistance to them. This study assesses the knowledge of undergraduate nursing students at College of Nursing University of Mosul about Autism. Materials and method: The sample of the study consists of 110 undergraduate students in College of Nursing / University of Mosul. They were chosen randomly. They are (32) males and (78) females. A questionnaire presented by the researchers after comprehensive review. Results: The results of the study showed that a high percentage (85.5%) of the students stated that they didn’t study about this subject. It also showed that (87.3 %) of the participants answered that parents’ careless leads to Autistic disorder. Conclusion: Depending on the results, the study showed that there is no care about this subject in studying curriculums of the college. Most of the sample of this study don’t know if there are any health care centers in Mosul city for Autistic disorder Recommendations: More attention should be paid about this subject in studying curriculums at the college. Then awareness about Autistics disorder need to be improved among students and parents. Keywords: Assessment, Autism Disorder, Nursing Students, Knowledge about Autism.