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Article History

Received: 13 May 2018

Accepted: 28 June 2019

First Online: 22 July 2019

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: The present study was approved by the Institutional Board of the Nursing School of Verona University. As the present anonymous survey of nursing students was part of a quality improvement project promoted by local institutional boards, the Ethics Committee of Verona (Comitato Etico per la Sperimentazione Clinica delle Province di Verona e Rovigo) did not deem it necessary to require ethical approval.Anonymous questionnaires were distributed to students during class. Students had been informed about the incoming anonymous survey a few days before to decide whether to attend the class. The aims of the survey were explained to students, who were free to participate or not participate, as denoted by the non-negligible nonresponse rate. Hence, consent to participate was implied by attendance of the class, and this form of consent was approved by the Institutional Board of the Nursing School of Verona University.

: Not applicable.

: G. Verlato received financial support from BioMed Central to participate in the 2014 and 2015 Congresses of the European Respiratory Society. All remaining authors declare that they have no competing interests<b>.</b>