A Study about Wearing Helmets by Nursing Students of the Nakhon Phanom University

Abstract

This descriptive research studied the opinions of 223 nursing students of the Nakhon Phanom University in 2009. The participants were purposively selected from the first, second and third‐year students. The questionnaire used assessed general data, opinions towards wearing helmets, actually wearing helmets, and the problems occurring when wearing helmets and which kind of helmets were selected for using them. The questionnaire was tested for content validity and reliability and achieved a Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient of 0.88. After informing the students about the purpose of the study, the questionnaire was distributed to 223 students and 216 (96.86%) of them returned the filled in forms. Data were analyzed by using conventional descriptive statistics. In general the students agreed that it is compulsory to wear helmets (Mean=3.51, SD.=0.95). However when it came to actually wearing the helmet the result was not entirely satisfying (Mean=3.16, SD.=0.78). Quite a number of problems were listed why not to wear helmets (Mean=2.51, SD.=0.76), and the behavior of purchasing a helmet is in the medium level (Mean=3.30, SD.=0.86). The suggestion is to encourage students to wear helmets so that finally all of them apply to this regulation.