Background: ChatGPT was not intended for use in healthcare, but it has potential benefits that depend on end-user understanding and acceptability, which is where healthcare students become crucial and there is still a limited amount of research.Objective: We aim to understand healthcare students' ChatGPT perceptions, ethical considerations, use, and attitudes.
Methods:A cross-sectional survey of medical, nursing, dentistry, nutrition, and laboratory science students across the Americas was undertaken from May to June 2023. Descriptive analysis, Chi-square, and ANOVA for statistical significance across categories were used. Multiple linear regression models examined the effect of perception scores on attitude variables. All models were adjusted for gender, institution type, major, and country. STATA 18.0 performed all analyses.Results: Of 2661 healthcare students, 43% were unaware of ChatGPT. The average score of knowledge was "minimal" (mean 2.03±1.19). Most respondents regarded ChatGPT as neither ethical nor unethical. Most participants "somewhat agree" that ChatGPT (i) benefits healthcare settings, (ii) provides trustworthy data, (iii) is a helpful tool for clinical and educational medical information access, and (iv) makes the work easier. 7/10 people use it for homework. Higher knowledge and ethical scores raise Title: Understanding Healthcare Students' Perceptions, Beliefs, and Attitudes Toward AI-powered Language Models: A cross-sectional study in the Americas.