Knowledge and Attitude of Student Nurses and Hospital Nurses regarding AIDS

Background: Amongst the health care professionals nurses and nursing student are an important component of the health care delivery system.Since they are the one who are responsible for the constant care of in-patient and thus, they come in close contact with blood and other body fluids of patients.Due to frequent and prolonged contact they are being identified as a potential risk group for the HIV/ AIDS spread.Aim: The aim of this study was to assess knowledge andattitudes of student nurses andhospital nursesand to identify willingness to provide care for patients with AIDS.Adescriptive studydesign was used.The study was conducted at faculty of nursing, Minia University and in Minia University hospitals.A convenience sample of 84 student nurse and 46 working nurse were enrolled in this study.Tool: Specially designedquestionnaire after reviewing the related literature.It consisted of three parts that include questions related to Socio-demographicdata;questions related student nurse and hospital nurse level of knowledge and questions related to attitude toward care of patient with AIDS.Results: The present study indicate that the overall knowledge score was satisfactory for both student nurse and hospital nurse and 50% of student nurse and 54.3% of hospital nurse has negative attitude toward care of patient with AIDS.Conclusion: It concluded that there is satisfactory level of knowledge and low attitude toward care of patient with AIDS.Recommendation: It is recommended that continuing education programs are needed to increase awareness about AIDS risk factors, causes, clinical manifestation, prevention, complication and study on large number of student from more than faculty and hospital nurses from more hospitals.Also the nursing curriculum and teaching strategies need to be developed to address this health issue.