Nurses' willingness to care for AIDS patients and spirituality, social support, and death anxiety.
OBJECTIVE
Use Rogers' (1992) framework of the science of unitary human beings to examine relationships among spirituality, perceived social support, death anxiety, and nurses' willingness to care for AIDS patients.


METHODS
Descriptive, correlational.


METHODS
Population, female RNs in the New York City Metropolitan area who care for patients with AIDS. Convenience sample of 220 RNs who worked in eight hospitals either on AIDS-dedicated units (n = 88), or medical-surgical scatterbed units (n = 132) with a daily AIDS patient census of between 5% to 50%. Data were collected in 1992.


METHODS
Spiritual Orientation Inventory, the Personal Resource Questionnaire-85, the Templer Death Anxiety Scale, and the Willingness to Care for AIDS Patients Instrument.


METHODS
Pearson product-moment correlations and hierarchical multiple regression analyses to test hypotheses.


RESULTS
Willingness to care for AIDS patients was positively correlated with spirituality and perceived social support, and negatively correlated with death anxiety. Death anxiety moderated the relationship between spirituality and willingness to care. In total, 17% of the variance in nurses' willingness to care for AIDS patients was explained. Additional regression analyses indicated that group membership as either an AIDS-dedicated nurse or medical-surgical nurse did not moderate or change hypothesized relationships.


CONCLUSIONS
Because group membership explained 22% of the variance in willingness to care, the data indicate that group culture or professional identity should be further examined as predictors of nurses' willingness to care for AIDS patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Social support at work from administrators and colleagues, as well as the support from patients themselves is important to nurses and should be fostered.
Sherman
D W
DW
Division of Nursing, School of Education, New York University, New York, USA.
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D002321:Career Choice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D009742:Nursing Theory; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires