NURSES AND AIDS CARE: OCCUPATIONAL RISK PERCEPTION AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF HIV (IMMUNE DEFICIENCY).
Contributors: University of Pennsylvania.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 173
Subjects: Sociology, General.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This dissertation is a study of the perception of occupational risk involved in AIDS care nursing. Research will examine the social construction of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the meaning of HIV risk and risk perceptions for nurses, the variables underlying differences in nurses' perception of risk, and some consequences of risk perception for nursing care. National survey data collected from nurses working at twenty hospitals in U.S. cities with high AIDS prevalence are analyzed. Analyses find multiple indicators of risk perception are consistently associated with AIDS care experience, knowledge and training, attitudes toward groups most affected by AIDS, and a nurse's organizational environment. Variation in risk perception is not significantly associated with actual or potential or exposures to HIV through physical contact or needle stick injuries. Nurses who are experienced in AIDS care, knowledgeable, tolerant, and under less stress perceive a lower degree of risk for occupational infection. As consequences, perception of HIV risk is negatively associated with willingness to treat and the desire to continue caring for HIV-infected patients, while it is positively associated with a resentful attitude towards AIDS care. The results of survey analysis are elaborated by ethnography of nurses working in AIDS care settings. For nurses, the problems of HIV and AIDS and the bases of risk perception are medical, epidemiological, and organizational. Organizational reform, nurse education and experience may help temper elevated perceptions of occupational HIV risk and thus enhance the quality of AIDS care.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-08, Section: A, page: 3316.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 1995.

School code: 0175.