Tanzanian and Sudanese students had on average strong intentions to provide surgical treatment to HIV infected patients as part of their future professional work. In contrast, in a study of Taiwanese nurse students' care intentions, almost all stated that they did not intend to care for HIV infected patients [44] . In this study, intended health care delivery was primarily driven by attitudes followed in descending order of importance by social norms, moral norms and perceived behavioural control in both countries. This finding is congruent with findings in other studies of treatment delivery and compliance with precautions in health care workers [29] [30] [31] [32] . This finding is also similar to that reported by Sauls [33] , who identified attitudes as more influential in determining health care delivery intentions than subjective norms. In contrast, Vermette and Godin [30] found perceived behavioural control to be the strongest influencing factor of nurses' intention to provide home care for HIV infected people. Students who did not express confidence in their ability to circumvent difficulties associated with care delivery, who evaluated care delivery negatively and who felt less normative pressure from colleagues at the faculty and less moral obligations to act were less likely to have strong intentions. These findings add insight to faculty administrators and educators to further develop strategies to increase students' intention to care for patients with HIV and AIDS. Providing sufficient and adequate protective equipments, routinely practicing infection control measures and protocols and providing up to date continuing education and training exercises should improve students' ability to overcome perceived obstacles related to care delivery. Even more important is the enhancement and reinforcement of students' positive attitudes through verbal expression of approval, persuasive messages based on strong arguments, substantial rewards and psychological support by faculty staff to encourage and acknowledge their efforts. Students' decision to provide surgical treatment to HIV infected patients was also influenced by their expectations that faculty colleagues would approve their provision of such treatment. In planning intervention programs, one approach which could be particularly important among students having less care delivery experience is to train peer leaders to communicate the importance of quality care for HIV infected patients. Interventions might also benefit from making students' focus on moral obligations by increasing their awareness of others' needs and their perception that providing quality care could help relieve such needs.