How home care agencies in Germany view the AIDS challenge: results of an exploratory study

The purpose of this article is to examine the current state of home care services for people living with HIV/AIDS and other seriously ill patients in Germany. It is based on a research project promoted by the Federal Ministry for Labor that aimed to investigate the possibilities and problems related to home care of the critically ill and thus establish basic scientific principles that could be used to close a health care gap that has long been of concern. The article will initially offer a brief explanation of the causes underlying the current problems in the field of home care for seriously ill patients. The authors then present the implications for nursing qualification that will have to be addressed to develop a patient-oriented, priority-level home nursing care program for people with HIV/AIDS in Germany.