Assessing malnutrition knowledge in nursing students: A cross-sectional study

• Nursing students need nutrition knowledge to prevent and treat malnutrition. • Only one third of the nursing students had high levels of knowledge. • It is necessary to include active teaching methods in basic nursing education. Nursing students must have adequate nutritional knowledge so they can be prepared to identify, prevent and treat malnutrition. Therefore, gaining insights into these students’ nutritional knowledge will provide guidance for modifying existing nursing curricula. The aim of the study was to assess Austrian nursing students’ knowledge of malnutrition. We performed an online survey with the Knowledge of Malnutrition-Geriatric 2.0 questionnaire among nursing students. The questionnaire was tested in a pilot study which revealed that all questions could be understood by the students. Most of the 478 participants were female (87.9%), and their mean age was 23 years. 38.3% were categorized as having high levels of nutritional knowledge. Nursing students from universities of applied sciences had the best knowledge. Nursing students seem to gain moderate levels of nutritional knowledge during their basic education. It is necessary to include active teaching methods which foster learning and understanding in basic nursing education. This may help train nurses who are prepared to provide interdisciplinary nutritional care and address the complex needs of older persons.