Attitudes among medical students regarding HIV/AIDS.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate attitudes and misgivings among the medical faculty's students regarding HIV/AIDS.


METHODS
The 10-item questionnaires was distributed among 237 fifth year medical students regarding willingness to take care for people living with HIV/AIDS, misgivings contracting HIV, comfortable relationship with AIDS patients, attitudes towards HIV infected health care workers and support for routine HIV testing. The students filled the questionnaire before and after completing the 3-weeks long clinical training.


RESULTS
Neither willingness to take care nor obligation to treat patients with HIV changed significantly during the clinical training. We achieved reduction of fear of contracting HIV and an increase in feeling comfortable with HIV infected patients. There were no changes in support for HIV testing among patients and health care workers.


CONCLUSIONS
Medical schools should develop and frequently update programmes for continuous training on HIV/AIDS.
Leszczyszyn-Pynka
Magdalena
M
Department of Infectious Diseases, Pomeranian Academy Of Medicine, 4 Arkonska St., 71-455 Szczecin, Poland. mlpynka@interia.pl
Hołowinski
Krzysztof
K
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011044:Poland; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires