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Article History

Received: 23 October 2025

Accepted: 27 January 2026

First Online: 6 February 2026

Declarations

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: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and National Research Committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Changwon National University’s IRB (IRB approval number: 7001066-202404-HR-019). The study protocol, including participant recruitment procedures, data collection methods, and data management plans, was reviewed and approved prior to commencement of the research.

: This study involved human participants (nursing students) and complied with all relevant ethical guidelines for research involving human subjects. The research posed minimal risk to participants, involving only educational interventions that were part of their normal curriculum and survey completion. No vulnerable populations were involved, and all participants were competent adults capable of providing informed consent.

: Informed written consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Prior to participation, all students were provided with comprehensive information about the study purpose, procedures, potential risks and benefits, voluntary nature of participation, and their right to withdraw at any time without penalty. Participants were explicitly informed that their participation or non-participation would not affect their academic standing, grades, or future educational opportunities. All consent forms were collected and stored securely according to institutional guidelines.

: All participants provided informed consent for the publication of anonymized research findings. Participants were informed during the consent process that the results of this study might be published in academic journals and presented at conferences, with all identifying information removed to protect their privacy. For the qualitative component, focus group participants provided additional consent for the use of their anonymized quotes in publications.

: Permission was obtained for the use of all validated instruments employed in this study. The Korean version of the Dementia Attitude Scale (DAS) was used with appropriate citation to the original developers and Korean translators. The case vignettes for assessing knowledge of cognitive impairment, originally developed by Fick et al. [ ] and translated into Korean by Kang et al. [ ], were used in accordance with academic fair use principles and with proper attribution.

: The authors confirm that this manuscript is original and has not been published elsewhere. It is not currently under consideration for publication in any other journal. All data, analysis, and findings presented in this study are the result of the author’s original research.

: The authors declare no competing interests.