BACCALAUREATE NURSING STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARD PATIENTS WITH ACQUIRED IMMUNODEFICIENCY SYNDROME (AIDS).
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 111
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The attitudes of baccalaureate nursing students (N = 187) toward patients with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), who acquired the syndrome via three different modes of transmission, and toward one non-AIDS patient, was investigated.

Each subject read and responded to one of four short vignettes, three of which depicted an identical 35-year-old male patient with pneumonia due to AIDS whose mode of transmission was either homosexual contact, intravenous drug use or a blood transfusion. The fourth vignette depicted an identical patient with pneumonia due to the flu without AIDS. The subjects then completed a 7-point Semantic Differential rating scale consisting of 30 bipolar adjective pairs, which measured their response to the hypothetical patient. In order to determine what dimensions the subjects' responses fell on, the data was subjected to a principle components analysis. The factor analysis yielded seven factors, three of which were major factors, which the researcher labeled: (1) the negative evaluation factor, (2) the fear-producing factor and (3) the potency factor. A series of one-way analysis of variance and post-hoc Scheffe contrasts yielded the following results: (1) the intravenous drug user was evaluated significantly more negatively than the three other patients, (2) the intravenous drug user was significantly more fear-producing than the homosexual, and (3) the homosexual was rated as significantly less potent than the blood transfusion recipient with AIDS and than the patient without AIDS. Thus, mode of transmission was a significant independent variable.

A background data sheet was completed by all subjects. A series of chi square tests of association and one-way analysis of variance indicated that there were no significant differences between the four groups on any background variable.

Implications and recommendations for nursing education, nursing service, and nursing research were discussed based on the interpretation of the results.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-06, Section: B, page: 2372.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1986.

School code: 0055.