Predicting AIDS patient care intentions among nursing students

Predictors of intentions to care for AIDS patients were examined among 153 sophomore and senior nursing students. Multiple regression analysis revealed that students who had relatively less AIDS knowledge and who perceived greater occupational risk of HIV infection expressed stronger intentions to avoid caring for AIDS patients. However, avoidance intentions were not simply a function of concern about personal health and inadequate knowledge. Students who held more negative attitudes toward intravenous drug users also had stronger intentions to avoid caring for AIDS patients, even when the effects of AIDS knowledge and perceived occupational risk of HIV infection were controlled. AIDS content is incorporated in the nursing curriculum for these students beginning in the junior year. Multivariate analysis of variance performed to determine the effects of this content revealed a significant effect for year in school considering all the dependent variables simultaneously. Seniors had lower avoidance intentions, lower perceived occupational risk, and greater AIDS knowledge than did sophomores.