The number of people suffering form AIDS is growing rapidly. These people require care from nurses who should be well trained to undertake all the various aspects of nursing care. Nurses are more than any other heath care professionals on the "front line" of AIDS patient care.
This study aimed to measure nurses´ knowledge and attitude regarding AIDS.
Data were collected using a questionnaire was made up of two sections : to examine attitudes toward AIDS patients Kelly´s prejudicial evaluation scale and social interaction scale was used, to measure knowledge about AIDS a knowledge evaluation tool developed by Jeon et al was used.
Questionnaires were distributed to random sample of 515 nurses in Gyeongnam Province from March 25 to April 25, 1995. The surveyed data were analyzed by way of percentages, means, T-test, ANOVA and Pearson´s correlation coefficients.
The results of this study were as follows.
1. General characteristics. of surveyed nurses
81.7 percent were younger than 29 years old.
63.7 percent had less than 5 years nursing career.
66.6 percent got information from newspapers, magazine, pamphlet etc.
2. Nurses appeared to have a considerable knowledge on AIDS(Correct answers 15 over 20 questions)´
3. Nurses appeared to have negative attitudes regarding social interaction with AIDS patients in spite of no Prejudicial attitudes toward AIDS.
4. There was no significant difference of knowledge on AIDS by general characteristics of surveyed nurses.5. Nurses´ attitude toward AIDS.
There was a significant difference of prejudicial degree by general characteristics except religion(P<0.05 or P6. There was a significant negative correlation between prejudicial degree and social inter-0.001).
In conclusion, it is required to enhance nurses´ understanding of the physical, psychological, and social aspects care of the patient suffering from AIDS. Therefore, nurse education programs have to be clearly identified to tackle ethical and moral issues surrounding AIDS.
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