Nurses' health education program in India increases HIV knowledge and reduces fear.
Few health care facilities are adequately prepared to manage and care for HIV/AIDS patients in India. Nurses play a critical role in patient care but are often ill-equipped to deal with their own fears of occupational risk and handle the clinical aspects of HIV/AIDS care, leading to stigma and discrimination toward HIV-positive patients. The authors examine the impact of a 4-day HIV/AIDS health education program on knowledge and attitudes of nurses in a government hospital. This education program was developed using a training of trainers model and qualitative research. A total of 21 master trainers underwent 6 days of training and began training of 552 hospital nurses (in 2004-2005). Using a pretest-posttest design, the authors assessed changes in knowledge and attitudes of 371 trained nurses. Significant improvements were seen in nurses' HIV/AIDS knowledge in all areas including care, treatment, and issues of confidentiality and consent. Fear of interaction with people living with HIV/AIDS was reduced significantly. The short course was successful in increasing nurses' knowledge in all aspects. There is great potential to expand this stigma-reduction intervention to other public and private hospitals.
Pisal
Hemlata
H
BJ Medical College/Johns Hopins MIT Study Group, Pune, India.
Sutar
Savita
S
Sastry
Jayagowri
J
Kapadia-Kundu
Nandita
N
Joshi
Aparna
A
Joshi
Mangala
M
Leslie
Jo
J
Scotti
Lisa
L
Bharucha
Kapila
K
Suryavanshi
Nishi
N
Phadke
Mrudula
M
Bollinger
Robert
R
Shankar
Anita V
AV
D003479:Curriculum; D004506:Education, Nursing; D005239:Fear; D017144:Focus Groups; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D009726:Nurses