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Caring by degrees
Catherine Ward
Lecturer, School of Nursing, Curtin University of Technology, Perth WA
Abstract
Caring is synonymous with nursing and, regardless of the culture, race, lifestyle or sexuality of clients, nurses should care for all clients. However, the emergence of HIV/AIDS brought a new and quite different challenge to nurses with regard to willingness to care. Some nurses expressed a negative attitude toward, and reluctance to care for, those clients with HIV/AIDS, mainly due to fear of contagion based on ignorance about the disease.
The purpose of this cross-sectional study was firstly to determine if there were differences in attitudes toward caring for clients with HIV/AIDS in the three different at-risk groups (homosexuals, intravenous drug users and haemophiliacs), as expressed by nursing students at the beginning (Semester 1) and the end (Semester 7) of a three-and-a-half-year nursing degree programme. The second determination was whether or not there were differences between the two groups of students regarding their knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Data results indicated no significant difference between the two groups of students in regard to caring attitude towards members of the at-risk groups and knowledge of AIDS. This paper discusses the implications of research findings for nursing and further research.
Keywords
willingness to care, HIV/AIDS, contagion, ignorance
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