ATTITUDES OF NURSING STUDENTS AND THEIR INSTRUCTORS RELATED TO ACQUIRED IMMUNE DEFICIENCY SYNDROME IN ARIZONA (IMMUNE DEFICIENCY).
Contributors: Arizona State University.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 130
Subjects: Education, Higher.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Psychology, Behavioral.
Description: A survey of Arizona's nursing students and faculty was completed Fall 1994 to determine attitudes toward the care of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) patients. An AIDS Attitudes Scale (AAS) questionnaire was distributed to first semester and final year community college and university students and faculty. The AAS instrument measured three scales; Empathy, Avoidance and General Attitude.

Completing the questionnaire were 1,077 nursing students and 154 nursing faculty. Three public universities and eleven community colleges participated in the study. The response rate for Associate Degree (ADN) students (n = 826) and Baccalaureate Degree students (n = 251) was 97% with the faculty (n = 154) response rate being sixty-five percent.

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's Multiple Comparison t-test were the methods of statistical analysis employed. Results of data analysis indicated that nursing faculty held very positive, supportive and non-judgmental attitudes toward HIV/AIDS. When compared to student attitudes, faculty were significantly more positive.

Student attitudes were fairly positive. BSN senior student attitudes were significantly more positive than ADN final year student attitudes. BSN seniors also held significantly more positive attitudes than BSN first semester students. ADN nursing students held the most negative and judgmental attitudes of the student groups.

Nearly 40% of students reported caring for or personally knowing an HIV/AIDS patient. Nearly one-half of the student respondents indicated that a family member or significant other had expressed concern about the student caring for an AIDS patient. Students expressing a family members' concern reported more negative attitudes. Age was also a significant factor regarding attitudes. Students under age 30 held more negative attitudes than older students, with students under age 20 expressing the most negative attitudes.

Male students expressed the most negative and judgmental attitudes toward HIV and AIDS. Religion was also a significant factor with LDS (Mormon) demonstrating the most negative and judgmental attitudes among religious affiliations. There were no differences in attitudes when areas with higher and lower incidences of AIDS were compared.

Study results were limited due to the study's descriptive nature. The results cannot be generalized due to the use of a convenience sample in a specific geographical location.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-04, Section: A, page: 1262.

Thesis (ED.D.)--ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY, 1995.

School code: 0010.