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Document Type

Thesis - University Access Only

Award Date

1999

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Graduate Nursing

First Advisor

Kay Foland

Keywords

AIDS nursing, nurse practitoner attitudes

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the attitudes of advanced practice nurses towards caring for AIDS patients.
Design: Descriptive in nature. Data collected August 1998. Participants were included in the study based on the listing of clinical advanced practices nurses holding an advanced practice degree with the South Dakota Board of Nursing. The clinical entities included were clinical nurse specialists, nurse midwives, nurse anesthetists and nurse practitioners. The sample included 242 respondents.
Methods: Participants were asked to complete a demographic questionnaire and the Differentiated Attitudes Towards AIDS (DATA) assessment tool. They were asked to rank their attitudes towards AIDS patients based on the mode of transmission.
Findings: A difference in the degree of negativity was related to the mode of transmission. The most negative attitudes were reflective in the response to the intravenous drug users category. Advanced practice nurses did demonstrate more negative attitudes towards homosexual vs. heterosexual modes of transmission. The most positive and neutral responses were directed towards patients who acquire AIDS through blood transfusions.
Conclusions: Although we have been addressing the issue of attitudes towards AIDS patients within the nursing profession for over a decade, we continue to see differing degrees of negativity based on the mode of disease transmission. A majority of these studies were, however, directed towards basic nursing and not advanced practice nurses. Further research is necessary to validate this study and explore the reasons why participants hold varying degrees of negativity based on the mode of transmission.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

AIDS (Disease) -- Nursing
Nurse practitioners -- Attitudes

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

72

Publisher

South Dakota State University

Rights

Copyright © 1999 Diane Robb. All rights reserved

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